Eddie Izzard

I was watching this clip of Eddie Izzard and look:

See behind him? The Chartres Cathedral labyrinth!  :-)

St. Luke's Labyrinth: Part 1

I've been working on a canvas labyrinth for St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and I finally got it taped off this past weekend. It's my most ambitious one yet. It's four 12 X 15 canvases that I velcroed together. I started with blue painter's tape:

I ran out of blue tape, and went to the closest store, Tractor Supply and got some more. Then I picked up a pack of masking tape, just in case, at half the price. SO glad I did!  I ended up running out of blue tape, and finished with the masking tape. It was so much easier to work with. So that will be my go-to tape from now on. 

I did an abbreviated version of the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth:

Here's the finished taping:   

But it's not round, you may be thinking. At first I was going to do it round, but the canvas is so large and it required too much math. [shaking fist] Math!  Plus, it wasted so much canvas to make it round. So I optimized the space. Here are the canvases separated and folded:

Rather bulky & heavy. I had to carry them 2 at a time. 

The next part is to paint it. Stay tuned . . . .

Layers

I started this labyrinth a few months ago & set it aside. I was listening to a recording of Jerry Stocking's latest seminar as I started to work on this. I thought it would be cool to cover it with layers of tissue paper. Which I did as I was listening . . .

Anything you learn about yourself is good news.

and I don't like how this art piece is turning out. I don't like the shapes or the colours. But I keep adding more tissue paper, thinking that if I just put enough layers on there . . . still not looking the way I want it. Should I start over? No! I've come this far. So I added paint to the glue medium. Maybe that will transform it.

What a mess. And I've spent 2 hours on this! So I ended up trying to peel just the top layers off. Yeah, that worked. In the end, I got it sopping wet and scraped it clean. Really clean. Usually I erase the pencil marks & paint over the smudges. I didn't think more of it except that I felt like I'd wasted my time with it. Until I talked to John later that day. He's the one who introduced me to Jerry. So I was telling him what I had heard from Jerry's seminar so far, including the above quote. I didn't mention I was also working on this art piece. He said:

When you find out something about yourself, you're peeling away a layer of conditioning, like layers of paint; getting down to the essence of who you are which is nothing--which is everything. Layers are who we say we are. Once peeled away, they no longer have an effect on you. Layers & conditioning block your essence.

It was then that I told him about my frustrating art experience. Or so I thought. What had been a waste of time became a beautiful metaphor--and all the more because even tho I wasn't at Jerry's seminar, I was still receiving the benefits. It also sparked an insightful blog post from John, Peeling Layers. The question becomes, What layers are you hiding underneath? If you peel them away, you reveal your Divine Essence.

New Labyrinth Painting

When I got into labyrinths, I built the Cretan/Classical because it was easy and didn't require math. This is my first attempt at drawing the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth. I've always been partial to the Cretan one prolly because it's the one I'm most familiar with. I'm rather enjoying this new one--less predictable when I'm tracing it with my finger. Where am I? I lose track and can't figure it out. It will be a painting. Eventually.

My nephew, Dimples, who is 8, is sitting here with me and says, "You could make copies of this and sell it and make money." Yes. Yes I could. "Maybe you could even put it in the newspaper." That's his marketing side coming out. ;-) Mum & I are heading to the Brother D's with Pioneer Sister's kiddliewinks today. And then! To the beach at the crack of dawn tomorrow.