I chalked a little Labyrinth about a month ago… and apparently, it might still be there!
As a design motif, many of my Labyrinths include chalk outlines of my shoes stepping towards the entrance.
These footprints are, or were, made in 6th & Fir Park, located beside the start of the Arbutus Greenway.
“When I was a kid (4th or 5th grade), I loved drawing mazes.
I took a small notebook of them to school and a classmate offered to pay me a nickel for one.
He showed his friend, who also wanted one.
I got another nickel.
Word spread, orders flowed, and my pencil scribbled more mazes.
To expand the business, I teamed up with a girl who advertised and took orders at recess while I drew more.
We learned that we could charge a quarter if I drew them on larger paper.
We hired another student to draw more mazes at the same time as me so my backpack wouldn’t run out of stock.
During school lessons, I would peek inside my desk and admire the stack of nickels and quarters that was growing next to my erasers.
Then our teacher overheard us discussing our business strategy on the way back from recess one day and he shut us down.
Potential multi-million-dollar maze factory, dead.
He told us that school was not for selling things.
Then he handed us an order form for the yearly bologna, cheese, and popcorn fundraiser and told us to take our seats.
(True story, but with a slightly heightened ending.)”
Like the many blades of grass now rising around the rocks,
This image with its perspective of showing Olympic Village in the background is growing on me.
Most photographs of Vancouver Public Labyrinth appearing online take the opposite perspective and have False Creek and the Downtown Vancouver skyline as its background.
Though this image was just posted, this is a wonderful photograph of the Vancouver Public Labyrinth before I re-arranged the rocks from these concentric circles into its current and more complex final design.
Quite surprised how long lasting this chalk Labyrinth has turned out to be.
Perhaps there are unique conditions at this very spot, the material of the paver bricks, the sea air around this pocket of South East False Creek, and being a corner that is less frequently walked upon yet beside the desire line of a path where most everyone walks beside.
Who knows?
Last time I re-visited this Labyrinth, I only had to re-chalk red into a few hearts, and re-outline the outer-most perimeter circle wall.
I randomly chalk Labyrinths upon Robson Square in Downtown Vancouver.
Glimpses of the Labyrinth I chalked at the beginning of Vancouver Design Week 2018 can still be seen in these Instagrams…
The Honeysuckle has really grown since I first began building this Stone Labyrinth.
A Maintenance visit in recent days revealed that eyeing from ground level, the Spyglass Place Labyrinth is almost hidden with an air of something Ancient.
Yet, from Cambie Bridge above, Spyglass is still easily seen…
