02 November 2016

Spontaneous Creative Place Making On-The-Ground Here In The New Urban DTMesa

Is this installation going to be a Pop-Up phenomenon or an ephemeral part  of the urban landscape landscape?  
Time will tell and it's a story your MesaZona blogger wants to write about ... how did this happen?
It all started about a year ago [or more] when Marie Green, a retired psychiatric nurse from Bayshore, Long island, purchased a condo in Robson Villas. She had previously rented an apartment at Cimarron but after doing some arithmetic, decided to became an owner of real estate here.
A brave, risky and yet calculated move when after settling in to her 2-story home, an open empty space next to the property on North Robson Street made her dream. Now we all know what Sigmund Freud, founder of Psychiatry, has to say about dreams and the unconscious, but this get-go Ms. Green is working to make her dream real.
After being out-of-touch for a while, got this email in my inbox six days ago:
"Hi, Tim,
Marie Green here.  Have a new addition to downtown Mesa.
Please come and see the Labyrinth that John Jay Pelletier created yesterday.  I found him online, don't know him, never met him.
Yesterday he showed up unannounced and created a Labyrinth on the empty lot between Robson Street Villas and Inside The Bungalow.
It was my dream for over a year.  I was researching the Labyrinth at Superstition Mountain Museum and came across his name.  Contacted him and the rest is history. "

The dream isn't history yet - still some work to do that's engaging these two active people.
If readers of this post take  a close look or zoom-in of the image taken the same day as Marie's email, you'll see the outlines of the earthwork and a little banner with information packet in front with this:
What is A Labyrinth?
Included on the take-away that question is addressed by saying they are ancient human symbols, appearing on most inhabited continents in pre-history, featuring the image of The Man In The Maze from the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indigenous Peoples who inhabited what is now Mesa centuries before the arrival of "The Pioneers" here in the mid 1850's.
This work-in-progress expands our understanding of "walk-ability" here in Mesa to include both art in the environment and mental health:
Why do we walk Labyrinths?
According to the on-site information, "a labyrinths is not a maze, but a walking meditation device with a single winding path from the edge to the center. There are no tricks, choices, or  dead ends. The same path is used to return to the outside. Combining a number of even older symbols, including the circle, spiral and meander, the labyrinths represents our true selves and back out into the everyday world.
Walking a labyrinths is a right-brain activity [creative, intuitive, imaginative] and can induce or enhance a contemplative or meditative state of mind. It is a tool which can clear the mind, calm our anxieties during periods of transition and stress, guide our healing, deepen self-knowledge, enhance creativity, allow for reconciliation, restore feelings of belonging to a community, and lead to personal and spiritual growth.
For many walkers, the labyrinths becomes a metaphor for the journey of life . . "

It might not be all that to everybody, but yours truly is thrilled and excited what two people who never met before are doing here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa . . very excited. 

Should any readers look at this as art here's a good read with a nice video
What is land art?
This modern-yet-ancient art form raises questions about humanity's relationship to the environment
Starre Vartan

November 1, 2016, 5:43 a.m.
"You probably recognize land art, even if you don't know exactly what it is. You may have even made some yourself, if you've drawn intricate patterns on a beach or arranged stones in a pattern near a stream bed. Land art is that which is made from natural materials, built or created in an outdoor setting, and which makes some kind of comment or observation about the environment.
That accessibility is part of the foundation of land art — sometimes called earthworks or earth art. It grew out of and shares common ground with the artistic movements of conceptualism and minimalism, but some think land art is arguably the oldest creative form. Monuments like Stonehenge, the Mexican pyramids, and the Nazca Lines could all be considered ancient earthworks or earth art."

Source > What is land art?

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