The Olympian gave the installation great coverage the day of the event. 

Labyrinth Installation

See video coverage at http://videos.theolympian.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=2248472&item_index=53&all=1&sort=NULL

http://www.theolympian.com/living/story/606008.html#multimedia

Click here to go to the article.  You’ll also find a link to a short video piece the olympian did about the installation.

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. 

(click image for larger view and click Home to return to this screen)

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

Port of Peninsula on the Willapa Bay, Nachotta.

Last day of summer. Nice making and walking a labyrinth in the sand again!  We’ve kept our small wooden boat, June, here at the Port for the last few weeks.  We pulled her out this evening, so I drew and walked a three-circuit labyrinth at the small beach near the Port.

Oysterville.

Planning as prayer is the theme of tonight’s Sharpie-drawn labyrinths, again on the Black Box floor plan.  I’m working with three-circuits, a modified version of the seven-circuit labyrinth.

My focus is drawing the labyrinth pattern in relation to the lighting grid, indicated on the floor plan, 6′ on center.  My first pass, 37_1, I drew the center of the labyrinth where I thought I’d want it in the Black Box space, but that pushes the whole labyrinth far against one wall.  37_2 places the labyrinth closer to where I want it.  37_3 works.  That pattern places the labyrinth where I want it and takes into consideration the width of the walls and paths.

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.

Oysterville.  For Marge.

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.

Oysterville.  

Glad to be back at the beach for now.  We’ll soon be wrapping up the season here and head back to Olympia to stay.

Oysterville. Made late on the 16th.

Olympia.  For Paul.

A late night labyrinth in Olympia for Paul. Water color on postcard.