Celebrating the Last Chapter of our Lives

Celebrating the Last Chapter of Our Lives Increasing age, and increasing turbulence in all aspects of the wider world are making me more and more aware that I am in the last (and possibly most exciting and most beautiful) chapter of my life, and that the time of my death, and possibly the death of most if not all of humanity is coming rapidly closer. I am therefore inviting you to join me in a facilitated discussion group so we can support each other in celebrating and finding meaning in our lives and our deaths in our remaining days, months or years. WHERE: Bribie Art Centre Labyrinth and Cafe 191 (meeting at the Labyrinth) WHEN: Tuesdays from 8:30 am to 10 am starting Tuesday March 10. WHAT: A focal point for contemplation and meditation will be emailed each Friday (or perhaps agreed on each week for the following week), and read at the beginning of the gathering, perhaps along with a short relevant reading. We will then have a slow walk through the labyrinth, followed by a silent 10 minute contemplation/meditation. This will be followed by a discussion of the day’s focal point in a shady place. Those who want can then adjourn to Cafe 191 (the Art Centre’s new cafe) for coffee and further discussion of whatever topics arise. WHO: This discussion should interest those who are seeking to live with awe and wonder at the mystery of it all, and with a recognition of a greater reality beyond our physical world – or are curious about why I would want to organise this group, and what we are discussing. We will all need to agree that this will NOT be a place for exploring solutions to the many challenges facing us whether politically, economically or environmentally, or to bemoan the lack of available solutions. It will Instead it will be a time to use our collective experiences and energies to explore ways to live this final chapter of our lives with gratitude, and a sense of celebration. Possible focal points for discussion include: 1 Why do we find discussion of death morbid (and even avoid the word ‘death’)? 2. Moving from pettiness to expansion (or in other words, a material focus to a community/environmental/spiritual focus in our lives). 3 What do we tell the children? We may find we want more time than just one week on some points – and hopefully group members will also contribute suggestions for topics. We will let the group evolve to suit our needs. Please let me know if you are interested in being part of the group, or on the mailing list for the group. If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining our discussions, please pass this email on to them. I would also be glad to answer any questions you might have about the group. Lets celebrate together!! Joyce Newell 0439 329 334 Joyce.Newell@bigpond.com

Summer solstice 2019 Celebration to Hallelujah

Summer Solstice at the Labyrinth Celebration to Hallelujah! Join our Summer Solstice Celebration to mark the longest day of the year in a Soundwalk at the labyrinth, being aware of the sounds around you, and joining in playing with sound devices in the Labyrinth.  Saturday 21 December 10 am at the Labyrinth followed by coffee and/or lunch at the Art Centre's Cafe 191. Everyone welcome. We are also celebrating our mural in the Art Centre Courtyard (Photos above) which salutes the labyrinth and brings colour and joy to the Centre, and is further described below. Thank you for your continuing interest in and support of the labyrinth, if only from a distance, and we hope to have more exciting activities involving sound and explorations into our own journeys along the labyrinth of life next year. May you continue to find joy in our increasingly complex and challenging world. Joyce A reminder of our sound meditations at the labyrinth every Tuesday morning at 7am.

This description

The Finished Mural

 

 

Come Celebrate!!!

What:  An informal gathering of friends of Joyce and the Art Centre labyrinth with coffee and cake at the Art Centre's Cafe 191.

Why:  To celebrate

• The third birthday of the Labyrinth,
• Joyce's 73 birthday,
• The finishing of the final stage of our mural which now celebrates both our life journeys, and the many-faceted facility that is the Arts Centre,
• Our friendships and the amazing lives that we all live today

When:  Saturday 2 November from 9:30 am. (the Bicycle User Groups regular Banksia Beach ride - so you can ride with us from the Information Centre at 8 am if you wish.)

Where: Cafe 191 Bribie Island Arts Centre, Sunderland Drive.  Enter by back gate near the labyrinth.

How:  We supply the cake, lovingly made by Corey, the chef extraordinaire at Cafe 191, and you can buy his great coffee - or other drinks.  An opportunity to visit, walk the labyrinth, and view our mural.

Hope to see you there,

Joyce  0439 329 334

Celebrate Spring Equinox at the Labyrinth Tuesday 24 September 10 am

Celebrate the Spring Equinox at the Labyrinth and Arts Centre   Please join us at the Art Centre Labyrinth at 10 am on Tuesday 24 September to celebrate the spring equinox and this time of renewal and new beginnings.   Our most recent addition is many native shrubs, some of which are in flower, and all adding to the peace and beauty of the area. We will meet at 10 am for a contemplative walk along the meandering path of the labyrinth followed by about 15 minutes of silence and meditation.  Those who wish can stay for coffee and cake - or perhaps early lunch at Cafe 191 the Art Centre's new and very successful cafe and a visit to an exciting collaborative exhibition in the Gallery by artists from Maleny and Bribie. Hope to see you there, Joyce   0439 329 334 PS  Further information about the labyrinth can be found at http://bribielabyrinthproject.blogspot.com/.  We are currently planning to extend our most recent project, the Peace Wall mural to fill the space between the mural and the back gate, and will be glad to discuss this project with anyone interested.  Our plans for creating a sound garden in the labyfinth are currently on hold until the mural is finished - but hopefully will happen when the time seems right....

Peace Wall at Bribie Island Community Arts Centre

Peace Wall at Bribie Island Community Arts Centre

A brief summary of our journey in creating the Peace Wall

Larysa Fabok, Joyce Newell, Glenys Donges, and Friends 

The Beginning: 18 December 2018 

Larysa paid with the Art Centre $150 for the rights to paint a mural on this wall (inside the back gate opposite the Boardroom).  The wall had been marked out with masking tape in the hope of getting artists to paint a section of the wall during the 30th Anniversary Celebrations earlier in December 2018, but no one took up the opportunity. Joyce joined Larysa from the beginning of the project, Glenys helped throughout, and several friends made valued contributions.

The agreement with BICAS is that the wall will be repainted in a year if anyone is interested in doing it. As we discovered, painting such a mural is a great artistic adventure for all involved, and provided much interaction to the many people passing by.  We all feel very privileged to have been able to contribute to the Art Centre in this way.

The following photos are only a small sample of our working times at the Wall - a very rough estimate of time onsite discussing plans and painting would be 80 woman hours over at least 20 days over 5 months.  The paint we used is exterior house paint supplied by BICAS, which proved quite suitable for working on the rough stucco finish. We limited our pallet to the few basic colours supplied and any colours we could get by mixing these colours (including the faux black). 

18 December 2018

Larysa developed an overall plan which we used as a guide.  This plan celebrates her personal journey into the Art Centre . It expanded and evolved as we worked together and discussed our progress. The left hand section of the mural represents the many art groups that are active at the Centre, the central section Larysa's journey of self discovery, and the right section the labyrinth backed by sound patterns as the Labyrinth Group is working to introduce playful sound into this area.

With Christmas intervening, we didn't get started until the end of January when we roughed out the first details that Larysa planned, using the the original tape sections to determine the placement of the central tree.

29 January 2019

A couple of weeks later we added the first areas of colour to define areas for Art Centre groups on the left-hand side and a sound pattern for the labyrinth on the right-hand side.

12 February 2019

12 February 2019

Again the vicissitudes of life including a very hot March, and a 5 week trip to New Zealand for Joyce, intervened, and we didn't resume work until April.

We next added detail to the right section - wood for the Woodies, and the beginning of a quilt, an open book (representing both Jung's Red Book and an Artist's Book Larysa has made in response to the Red Book), and the labyrinth path became rainbow-coloured.

  

8  April  2019

This continued the following week, when our sprite "Lucky", the mascot of the labyrinth, appeared, dancing along the labyrinth path.  Glenys added a lustrous turtle which she saw in a dream prompted by Jung's Red Book.

15 April 2019

22 April 2019

By 26 April, the basic structure of the mural was in place with both the different sections of the right-hand side and the rainbow-coloured labyrinth outlined in black.

26 April 2019

20 May 2019

The last month was a busy and an intense time for us all while we added lots of detail and filled in many white areas.  The Singing Tree burst into song, and became covered with flowers and butterflies.  Bilbies started hopping along the bottom. The Rainbow Serpent was given his head to lead us to our exultant song - Hallelujah!!!

We declared 21 June, the Winter Solstice as finishing day - and celebrated it with a meditation at the labyrinth, and a parade to the Mural led by Larysa playing her flute.

3 June 2019

Finished  21 June 2019

Brief description of detail of the wall.

Left panel clockwise from left hand corner:  Octopus mosaic for Mosaic Group; piano and music (Hallelujah!) for Musical Events; iceberg 'photo' for Photography Group, jewelery collage for Contemporary Arts Group, Tasmanian scene quilt for quilters and fabric workers, rocks and gems for the Gem Club, and timber for the Woodworkers.  The dark outlines represent the Leadlighters, and stamped leaves, and other patterns, the Printmakers.  The central turtle represents the Potters, and, mythically: The turtle is the king of the shelled creatures.  It is a sacred representation of the universe: its domed shell is the vault of the sky; its belly is the earth; and it swims in the sea.  The markings on the upper shell are thought to correspond to the constellations and are 'yang'; and those round the base of the shell represent the earth and are 'yin'.

The central panel has a flamboyant flower and butterfly covered singing tree (or world tree) with a skirt of mushrooms (Amanita muscaria), rooted to the earth and an open book representing  a book of life and wisdom, Jung's Red Book and an Artist's Book Larysa has made in response to the Red Book.

The right panel is a joyous representation of both Lucky's Labyrinth, and a rainbow serpent (representing life and its mysteries), intertwined with sound and music.  It is also a celebration of the role of creativity and play in all our lives.   The bilbies along the bottom,  (and the whistling kite in the upper right corner) are playful additions by Joyce. 

 "Hallelujah"  represents our joy in creating such a bright, beautiful mural, our time together while creating it and interacting with so many passers by - and most importantly, the Art Centre which is a hub of creative and friendship for so many people.

Enjoy!!!

 

 

From 13/06/2019

Celebrate Winter Solstice and Completion of the Peace Wall

 

  Join us on Friday 21 June at 2 pm for a labyrinth walk, and silent meditation to celebrate the Winter Solstice, and change of seasons, and the completion of the Peace Wall in the Art Centre Courtyard just inside the back gate and opposite the Boardroom.

The Peace Wall is a collaborative project by Larysa Fabok, Joyce Newell, Glenys Donges and friends which has been slowly evolving since January.  (See photos above, the final one still awaiting finishing touches in the coming week!)

This mural can be enjoyed and appreciated in several ways:

First, and most important, as a colourful and playful way to welcome people to the creative hub that is the Art Centre.

Second, the left side of the mural celebrates the many creative activities at the Centre (woodwork, gem club, mosaic, quilting, drawing, painting, pastels, printmaking, glasswork, etc), while the right side suggests the evolving creativity and innovation of the labyrinth and its soundscapes.  The centre panel represents the many factors that foster our journeys from more structured activities to the less structured ones: music and nature in the Singing Tree, our earth that grounds us all, and the vast collection of human knowledge.

Third, the mural commemorates each of our personal journeys from structure,  through expansion, self realisation, and learning mediated by nature, to the creative freedom, and playfulness that enrich our lives today. 

Soundscapes and playing and experimenting with sound have taken a back seat in recent weeks, while our energies have been focused on the mural.  We are looking forward to returning to this way of enriching the labyrinth space in the near future, hopefully including some workshops.

Hope to see you Friday 21 June 2 pm

Joyce   0439329334

PS  If you arrive early for the Solstice Celebration, you might enjoy lunch, cake and/or coffee at the Art Centre's new cafe Cafe 191 which is now open from 10 am to 2 pm Tuesday to Sunday.

You can also enjoy an exhibition 'On the Wild Side' by the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society in the Matthew Flinders Gallery either before or after our celebration (open 10 to 4 June 11 to 23rd except Mondays).

From 1 May 2019

Soundscapes enter next phase, including being celebrated in art

  Regular visitors to the Labyrinth and Art Centre may have noticed that the bits and pieces we have had around the seating at the labyrinth to encourage visitors to experiment and play with sound have been moved into our nearby storage chests. This marks the end of our initial experimentation with sound, and the start of the next phase of working to expand our creativity and willingness to play, and sharing it with the larger community through explorations with sound and resonance.

Future developments will probably take us in several directions. We want to create smaller sound instruments within the labyrinth itself that can be played while walking the labyrinth, possibly with the support of a RADF Grant.  We also plan to offer half or full day workshops on creating innovative soundscapes when we can experiment with our the collection of interesting items, and work towards developing sustainable instruments that will enhance the Labyrinth.  We would also like to use the labyrinth and soundscapes to help people explore their creativity, and the joy of play.

In addition, Larysa, Joyce and Glenys, along with several other helpers have been slowly creating a mural on the courtyard wall opposite the Boardroom (see above).  With an overall concept of Peace, the mural  celebrates our personal journeys from a structured world to accepting a more fluid universe, and also the connections between the many creative activities at the Centre and the evolving creativity of the labyrinth and its soundscapes.  It is still very much a work in progress, and if you would like to help it grow, or have any suggestions, we would love to have your help.  We have been painting mainly Monday mornings - but this varies a bit, so please check with us that we will be there.  Next painting day is tomorrow, Thurs 2 May.

Please also remember our regular Tuesday morning walking and silent meditation at the labyrinth 7 am.  Everyone welcome!!

Enjoy the richness of the sounds in your lives,

Joyce (0439329334), Larysa (0438378294) and Glenys