Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

My most recent Labyrinth is now completed and ready for play, exploration, meditation, and fun!

This time, it’s a new multi-colour Labyrinth painted on the surface of the wading pool in Fairmount Park in Toronto’s East End.

This location fills a gap in my Project‘s aspiration to placemake one Labyrinth in each of Toronto’s 221+ self-identifying neighbourhoods.

Enjoy your NEW Labyrinth Toronto !

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Labyrinth Community Network
Newsletter – Volume 4 . Issue 1

Hello Himy
I was so pleased with your contribution to our newsletter.
You really live your Sufi name.
We hope our paths cross soon.
JoAnn

The Sir Casimir Gzowski Park wading pool was my second labyrinth stop on this Thanksgiving Sunday 2011.

Having biked from Howard Junior Public School after experiencing their Species of The Humber Watershed playground labyrinth, I was en route to Butterfly Park just west of the Humber River. The original intention for the day was to create a giant Butterfly shaped labyrinth design. It has been on my mind for the past two summers, and today I finally made the time.

Watching a mother and son walk my wading pool labyrinth brought a smile to my face. Looking over to children climbing the nearby playground equipment, my eyes were drawn to the empty spot on the beach immediately south of the boardwalk.

As often happens in my labyrinth building, serendipity takes over and something else, somewhere else gets built first.

Only a moment was needed to decide to abandon plans for the Butterfly Labyrinth. Maybe it will get done next summer? Or the summer after that?

…I began measuring, then outlining circles in the sand… More Photos

Muslims in Toronto have been marking the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan with Eid al Fitr.

I attended GTA Eid at Metro Toronto Convention Centre hosted by Muslim Association of Canada.

After prayers, Muslim children, namely brothers Omar and Ammar and their big sister, helped create a Labyrinth using masking tape.

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This was Second Last Pedestrian Sunday of the year and the last one before Election Day.

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“this week after gymnastics we met the kids’ cousin at Christie Pits park for some playground action. it was a fine spring day.

“a highlight: walking the labyrinth.”

“bears like it, too.”

Re-blogged from Sarah Rosen’s blog Sweet Things.

It is the halfway point between the twin holidays of Christmas and Family Day in Toronto.

The Friends of Christie Pits Park have organized Winter Fun Day, an afternoon of skating, storytelling, pizza, and hot chocolate.
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Growing up in Toronto, one invariably will travel the subway system. For years, just east of the Victoria Park station, I would spot this wading pool in the park officially known as Prairie Drive Park but most people think of it as the south end of Warden Woods.

I always thought of the many thousands of people who look through the window of the subway train, and see this empty circle of concrete.

In May 2007, I finally got around to painting a labyrinth there. The circuits are white and I used a thin paint brush. Those choices made it less easy to identify from the distance of a speeding train what it is than I would have liked. More Photos

For this Streams of Consciousness themed Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market, an aqua flavoured labyrinth integrated sewer grates in the design.

Parents were given a break as their young ones walked and ran around and around and around the Water Labyrinth.

It proved quite popular throughout this mild bustling September afternoon.

“…In celebration of Afrofest‘s 18th year at Queen’s Park, Toronto-based Giant Outstallation Artist HiMY SYeD will be creating a giant sized walking labyrinth in the outline of the African Continent.

‘The AfroFest Labyrinth’ is part of HiMY’s ongoing Giant Outstallation Art project – ‘Toronto – City of Labyrinths‘. Intended to create safe walking spaces for both play and contemplation.

These labyrinths are located within (pun intended) walking distance of all Torontonians and at Toronto’s festivals, special events and street parties.”

… okay, so we didn’t finish making the labyrinth in the big backyard earlier this evening … manana, manana …

This is the Big Backyard to my grandparents’ place in Fremont, California.

One of those suburban nightmares where everything is manicured and nothing out of the norm ever seems to appear.

Eyeing the boredom of the complex’s kids and the great green grass canvas since my visit began here, I finally broke down today and installed, or rather tried to install, a labyrinth.

The only materials I could readily use were simple 8.5 by 11 sheets of paper and everyday toothpicks to pin the sheets into the grass.

Harder than it looks or sounds, the grass being deep, the ground moist, my fingers and thumbs aching, the children impatient.

The kids kept asking if the labyrinth was ready all afternoon. They even helped now and then, but their tiny fingers failed them after at best a sheet or two.

Imagine kids in the backseat of your car on a long trip repeating, ‘Are we there yet?’ and your ears may get a feel for what echoed in Fremont all afternoon.

Finally, I just gave in and let them play.

No one seemed to care the paper labyrinth wasn’t done yet.

It was enjoyed as is — unfinished.