Labyrinth Day 40

Oysterville.  Beached TV.

You’d think I’d ordered this TV scene for my 40th labyrinth.  This is the last of my daily-practice labyrinths as I transition into ‘installing’ the installation at The Washington Center. 

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Beached TV Labyrinth

Labyrinth Day 39

Oysterville.  For Aunt Marge & Mom.

            For Aunt Marge & Mom

My my mother’s only surviving sibling, my aunt Marge, died on this day.  My aunt spent the last few weeks of her life with my mom, in the same group home on the north side of Spokane.  My aunt Marge was one of my mother’s younger sisters.  The last time I saw my aunt Marge was a couple of years ago, I visited her in her own home.  She met me at her front door looking fabulous with long, full, gray hair that went everywhere.  I hugged her and told her she looked fabulous and she shrugged off the compliment saying in her unmistakable whiskey tenor, “I look like the wild woman of Borneo.”  I loved her.

For Aunt Marge & Mom

 

For Aunt Marge & Mom

Labyrinth Day 36

Oysterville.

Tonight’s labyrinth was much more about planning than prayer.  I plotted a labyrinth on the Washington Center’s Black Box floor plan where the October 3rd installation will be.  Drawn here is a seven-circuit labyrinth, however, the installation labyrinth will need to be modified to three circuits because the “walls” need to be wide enough to accommodate lots of artifacts and the “paths” need to be wide to accommodate wheel chairs.  But I started here with a seven-circuit to get a sense about how to modify the form.

Labyrinth Day 35

Oysterville.  For Marge.

For Marge. orange sharpie on grid paper, ws.

orange sharpie on grid paper, ms.

orange sharpie on grid paper, cu.

You’d think after more than a month of this daily labyrinth-making practice, remembering to do it would be automatic.  Not last night.  Anne and I had dinner in Ilwaco at Pelicano’s with Betsy and Marc.  It was kind of late when we got back home to Oysterville, and my head was just about on the pillow when I remembered I had not yet made a labyrinth.  I’d already used up the masking tape idea….  So I lit a couple of candles, and sat at the kitchen table with a small drawer of Sharpies and graph paper.  It took more time than I’d imagined it would, but it became contemplative and restorative time.  

People ask how long I will continue making a daily labyrinth.  I expect to continue the daily practice until September 29th, when I begin creating the labyrinth in the Black Box at the Washington Center for the October 3rd event.  It will take me five days to make that labyrinth, “The Labyrinth”!   Meanwhile, I’ll continue the effort of this daily practice.  Each labyrinth draws me more deeply into the project – taking time in contemplation, making what is most often an ephemeral offering, cultivating the ground for an act of sharing, opening my heart.  

In addition to practicing with a labyrinth each day, I work on some specific aspect of the October 3rd installation.  As soon as I complete this post, I’ll resume editing a video-sonic art piece that will be integrated into the labyrinth at the Washington Center.

About this Day 35 Labyrinth, as I was making it I found myself thinking about Marge Brown.  Marge was my  close friend who died a little over two years ago.  While I didn’t start this labyrinth with her in mind, it became about Marge as I made it.  She was an animator, a filmmaker.  She always had a Sharpie handy, and she always kept notes on graph paper. So late last night became a bittersweet, unexpected time with Marge.  Thinking of her made me smile….her famous line, “Keep being creative.” This is in memory of Marge.