Labyrinths: The Long and Winding Role

However, he says on occasion he will work with bricks or cobbles, or even locally produced pavers in an attempt to save the client some on the final budget.

Particularly with churches, the desire is almost always for the Chartres pattern.

Click photo to enlargeHe confesses that he always feels bad when he tells a church it can’t afford a labyrinth, or at least one with the Chartres pattern, which can take up to 1,000 man-hours to create. Since getting into the business, Kermeen says he’s spent hours of time trying to figure out how to make a Chartres labyrinth more affordable.

“We’ve devised many different ways over the years, some more successful than others, but we do have ways of cutting costs,” he says. “For instance, there are teeth-looking things on the perimeter known as lunation and just taking them off is a significant savings. Installing U-turns that aren’t quite as fancy, installing seven circuits rather than 11, and cutting things ahead of time are all options.”

CARVING A NICHE

Still, designing and installing a labyrinth can be a mix of backbreaking work and high art. For some of the Kermeens’ efforts, the art definitely comes to the forefront, such as for one of their “pre-sabbatical” efforts in the Madison, Wis., suburb of De Forest, Wis., where the couple installed two labyrinths in a seven-acre private park.

“The first thing the client had me build was a replica of a labyrinth that was torn out of a cathedral in Reims, France, about 1779,” Kermeen says. “It’s octagonal, and the only way we know what it was like is a monk made a quick sketch of it before it was destroyed.”

Kermeen is particularly pleased with that project, because it took him back to his interest in carving. The design features an octagon in the center, and then four smaller octagons from which the paths radiate. In the original, he says, those probably had carvings representing church officials of the time.

“When I was in high school, I did a lot of woodcarving,” he says. “For this, I did limestone carvings of earth, wind, fire and water, each about the size of a large footstool. And, those have generated more requests for me to do carvings.”

In late 2007, Kermeen returned to the site to install another labyrinth in the floor of an Amish-style barn that serves as a community center.

“It’s a six-circuit, 24’ labyrinth, and you can go up in the hayloft, walk around the perimeter of the barn, and look down on the center of it,” he says. “Then, at the entrance, I created what we call a seven-path classic. It’s a design that was found in 27 different countries and islands dating back to at least 600 BC.  And it had about 4,000 years of history behind it before other patterns showed up. It’s only 9’ in diameter, but people can walk in the footsteps of 4,000 years of human spirituality.”

Since getting back in the field in late 2009, among the projects the Kermeens created is a labyrinth for the city of Laguna Niguel, Calif., and its botanical preserve. The non-profit that runs the preserve was looking for a rentable space, and the labyrinth – at the top of the hill – provides that, as well as a reward for those hardy enough to make the climb.

“It’s a unique design for a labyrinth,” says Kermeen. “It has a flower motif in the center, which makes it obviously non-denominational – a mosaic of bougainvillea, which is the official city flower. It’s kind of like a jewel sitting at the top of the hill.”

ENTHUSIASTS

Kermeen adds that the job process was also a smooth one, because of the enthusiasm and collaboration of Laguna Niguel’s senior landscape architect.  Even smoother was a 2010 installation the couple did in Louisiana which took only 20 days from initial phone call to the start of work.

“It was a healing garden for the medical center in Covington, La.,” he explains. “The donor had seen our work in Audubon Park in New Orleans and had given the architect the task of finding us. They were really trusting in our abilities and our suggestions.”

On that job, Kermeen says his close relationship with Paveloc was critical.

“They went beyond the call of duty in helping us get what we needed with custom products and shipping,” he says.