Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

Little one having a Mindful Moment in the centre of the Baltic Wheel Labyrinth I painted on Augusta Avenue on Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market…

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Reaching the centre of The Grange Park Labyrinth makes for a smilingly-filled summmertime childhood memory.

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“Today the City of Toronto removed our Labyrinth as “graffiti” while leaving the actual graffiti on the benches and park furniture alone.

Every year they do this.

This year,

When this is my kid’s post-school calm down space,

It’s particularly frustrating.

Why can’t we have community art?

Luckily I know it will come back next summer.

It always seems to show up,

Magically in the night,

Until The City destroys it again.”

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Today the @cityofto removed our labyrinth as “graffiti” while leaving the actual graffiti on the benches and park furniture alone. Every year they do this. This year, when this is my kid’s post-school calm down space, it’s particularly frustrating. Why can’t we have community art? Luckily I know it will come back next summer. It always seems to show up, magically in the night, until the City destroys it again.

A post shared by Heather Ann (@hakerann) on Sep 16, 2020 at 3:00pm PDT

This image captures a bit of everything. . .

• You can see the kids running the Labyrinth
• You get a taste of the scale and size of my Chalk Labyrinth
• You may make out Labyrinth spelled in different languages

Some years back in Toronto when I was RE-Painting my Labyrinth in the Wading Pool in the middle of Christie Pits Park, a father of two young boys was surprised to finally meet me.

He had a seven year old and a four year old.

His then four year old had learned to walk by using the lanes of my Labyrinth.

His older brother, who was all of three years old at the time, would spend an hour by himself walking and re-walking and re-walking the Labyrinth.

That hour of parent-free direct attention allowed the dad to focus on his youngest, helping his toddler to learn to walk.

The father told me that they as a family had been walking the Labyrinth almost everyday that they could for the past four years.

I was speechless. I became unusually self-conscious as the Father wanted to snap a photograph of me standing with paintbrush in the Labyrinth.

It was one of the most profound moments during my journey in my City of Labyrinths Project.

Happily found one more instance of Labyrinths in Islam…

This Ramadan Activity Book by including a maze ( yes yes yes I am anti-Maze person and pro-Labyrinth Person but put that aside for the moment! ), brings two of my worlds, my separate City of Labyrinths project and my 30 Masjids in 30 Days of Ramadan project together…

This is my Second time blogging about Mazes and Masjids and Ramadan coming together.

First it was a greeting card in Indonesia, and now this My Ramadan Activity Book from Denmark and The UK.

It’s Ramadan and this caught my attention…

This image visually weaves together two of my parallel projects, this, The City of Labyrinths Project and my 30 Masjids in 30 Days of Ramadan project.

Another stepping stone in my understanding of Labyrinths in Islam.

Wading Pools in Toronto’s Public Parks are much more than simply small scale swimming pools for little ones.

They can double as Labyrinths after I paint them.

When a little older, kids on skateboards may go round and round and round my wading pool Labyrinths.

One boarder told me how my Labyrinth lines help in his situational awareness when enjoying his ride.

Wading Pools are often used by parents to teach their children how to ride a bicycle.

Ergo, A Velodrome for Tricycles and Push Bikes!

Naptime!

On the Labyrinth I painted in Earlscourt Park’s wading pool . . .

Hmmm. . . don’t know I ever thought to do that myself.

Children teach me so much.

This is really cool!

A timelapse of two children, one, Miguel, stays in the centre while the other walks out from the centre of my Chalk Labyrinth in MacLean Park.

I had re-chalked this particular East Vancouver Labyrinth just the day before, on Wednesday morning.

Video captured curated by Jonathan Cruz.

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Exploring East Vancouver, I walked far enough east along Hastings Avenue, passing Boundary Road and wound up in Burnaby.

Exploring side streets introduced me to Confederation Park. It’s huge and Multi-Purpose.

Found an empty spot of asphalt in the middle of a playground. Took my time with measurements and the result was a nice 11 Lane Chalk Labyrinth.

Was told it’s an Italian Neighbourhood, however seven children from two French speaking families kept hanging around me whilst I was making the Labyrinth.

Initially felt this was a Francophone neighbourhood. Not unlike the feeling I got when hanging out Vanier, the French speaking pocket of Ottawa.

It was HOT today, I am so thankful for working water fountains, both to re-hydrate and to wash my post-chalk-Labyrinth-making powdered hands.

Kids kept asking if this was the only day I was here to make the Labyrinth. “Yeah”, I told them. That answer made them sad.

Now I have to go back… and maybe next time I’ll bring along some paint and a brush or two.

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Chalked an 11 Lane Labyrinth in MacLean Park in the Strathcona Neighbourhood of East Vancouver.

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This new Labyrinth in the Wading Pool in Wadsworth Park is a Hit with Children and Parents alike.

It is my most complicated design to date, with at least 80 unique turns along the path from front entrance all the way to the centre.

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