Maze of the Week #28 - Playhouse Square Sign Maze

A sign maze we have seen before finally gets its week as a feature. The Playhouse Square Sign is a prominent sign in the theater district of Cleveland, Ohio on Euclid Ave.

Some information about Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio

Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City. The district was originally built in the 1920’s and opened in February 1921. If you ever get a chance to attend an event in one of the 8 theaters, you will find some beautiful architecture (that can be rented for photography purposes). You can learn about the history of the zone on the Playhouse Square districts website. It also features the largest outdoor chandelier in the world !

If you have an hour and want to learn about the district, here is an wonderful high quality program from WVIZ and PBS.

Or you can just watch the one minute drone footage that shows the area lit up (including the sign I mazed for this week). You also get a great view of the famous Playhouse Square chandelier. Tours of Cleveland has great information about it : “The Playhouse Square chandelier is the largest outdoor chandelier in the world. It is made up of 4,200 crystals. It took about a year to construct. It proudly hangs on Euclid Ave at E. 14th St. suspended by a 44 foot steel structure.”

A photo I took that I used to make the maze !

The maze and artwork:

I present 2 versions of Playhouse Square Sign artwork. One the full color maze, and the other version a black and white drawing without any maze.

Playhouse Square Sign Maze

And here is the original artwork before any colors or a maze were added.

I hope you enjoy the maze. You can find downloads of the maze where I keep it’s permanent home.

Coming next week:

A maze of a bridge statue with an interesting story !

Book Review - Labyrinth A-Ω by Clive Owen

Book Review - Labyrinth A-Ω by Clive Johnson 106 pages. AMZN.

Sometimes the author tells you about the book right there on the cover. This is the case with this book. The subtitle is “An Introduction to the How, What, and Why of Labyrinths and Labyrinth Walking”, and that is a perfect way to describe just what you will learn in this book !

What I learned in this book:

• Despite reading many books on labyrinths in the past, I was still introduced to a few new ones I had never heard of. I found myself switching to a new tab and doing visual searches to see them.

• The first chapter does a nice job speaking about labyrinths throughout history while the second speaks about why the labyrinth has so much appeal.

• When I think of labyrinth legends I think of Theseus and the Minotaur. But I learned about a Hindu story that is about a labyrinth, from the Mahabharata that the warrior Abhimanyu where he is shown how to defeat his enemies but not how to return from the battlefield.

• The word ‘maze’ did not appear until the 14th century, possibly coined by Geoffrey Chaucer. Before that labyrinth was used to describe what today we call mazes and labyrinths.

• There have been health studies that verify the health benefits of walking labyrinths, including reduced blood pressure and reduced stress and reduced anxiety.

• The organization Veriditas offers Facilitator Training for those that want to guide others through the labyrinth effectively.

What this book does best: Overall a good book. I really appreciated learning about many new and interesting labyrinths. There is also a nice directory of labyrinth resources that can be explored further.

Book Review - The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of Your Mind

The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of Your Mind by Rei Rei 242 pages. AMZN.

First I need to mention that despite the cover and the title this book is not about labyrinths. It is also not about spiritually walking a labyrinth. To me it is a book or Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu guru sayings and thoughts. It reads like a spiritual self help book. If is full of quotes from religious texts and philosophers. To give you an idea of what you will find on the pages I present the following words found among a sampling of pages in the book to give you a sense:

divine quality

cosmic reality

manifest the will

guidance of the higher self

time-bound persona

self-imposed illusions

epigenetics

miraculous healings

high-beta brain waves

The chapters are in alphabetical order and include titles like: Abundance; Anxiety; Awakening; Core Beliefs; Compassion’ Conditioning; Disassociation; Forgiveness; Grounding, Manifesting; Meditation; Renunciation; Resilience…and many more.

I would guess that this gives you a good sense of just what is in this book.

If you are a spiritual person and like philosophy, this might be the book for you. If you are looking for a maze book based on the cover you can skip this one, it is not the droid you are looking for.

Maze of the Week #27 Lincoln Memorial Maze

Maze of the week #8 was a maze of Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial for President’s Day. Today we return to the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate Independence Day (Happy Birthday to the USA !) with Maze of the Week #27. This is a large scale maze and is best printed on the largest piece of paper you can find. I used a draw and cut construction.

Some information about the Lincoln Memorial

Read the link above or you can check out this 7 minute video about the Lincoln Memorial.

A photo:

Let’s take a look at the building before looking at the maze.

Photo by Sachith Ravishka Kodikara from Pexels

The Maze:

You will need to print this maze to solve it, and preferably on large paper (tabloid or poster size). Most of the maze is solved moving between the large marble stones.

Lincoln Memorial Maze

I hope you enjoy the maze. Download is available in it’s permanent home here.

Coming next week:

A sign maze.