(waves crashing) (birds squawking)
- [Denny Voiceover] The Oregon Coast is just a world
of its own.
(waves crashing)
Sometimes, the tide is low and the waves are soft
and it's just nice and quiet and peaceful.
(distant waves crashing)
Then, you come back later on, the same day even,
and the tides come in, the waves have gone up,
the winds kicked up.
The rocks look like they're just protruding
up outta the ocean.
It's just a marvelous place to be.
(metal clanging)
I'm Denny Dyke, and I draw in the beaches of Oregon.
(sand moving)
And, I consider Bandon my home beach.
(waves crashing) birds squawking)
Man's always been enthralled with circles and spirals.
It's something in our nature,
and I think that's what drew me to it.
I started drawing the classical labyrinth, The Cretan,
because it's the simplest.
The Cretan Labyrinth goes back to at least 2000 B.C.
It's found on all seven continents.
And then, I went into the Baltic Wheel
which is just a variation of it.
The Cathedral Labyrinths, as they're called,
came about in about 1200 A.D.
(distant waves crashing) (distant birds squawking)
There's a lot of different variations to it out there,
so I drew one that had seven spirals in it,
and when I connected them all,
the very last path, I took around the entire field.
And, that's where I came up with Dream Field.
(distant waves crashing)
People come up and use the word amazing all the time.
But, it's not a maze.
A maze has dead ends, wrong turns,
and you struggle to reach the goal.
The point of the Labyrinth is to enjoy the journey.
(walking in sand)
All you have to do is follow the path,
and you will get there.
(distant waves crashing) (distant birds squawking)
- [Girl] Awesome!
(laughing)
- [Denny Voiceover] The reactions of people walking in one
of my labyrinths never seizes to amaze me.
The children, they don't question.
They just enjoy.
I've had kids take off on the labyrinth in a full run.
Sometimes after, they'll see
that the older people are walking slower,
they'll go back and walk.
Some adults are very tentative.
They'll start off real hesitant.
By the time they get half way through,
they've relaxed, they've settled in,
and they've just lightened their load.
(walking on sand)
When you're inside the labyrinth,
the rest of the world goes away.
(distant waves crashing)
The peacefulness, the quietness, the lack of distraction.
(waves crashing)
And hopefully, after you're done walking,
you can take it back out in the world
and walk in a little more peace.
(wave crashing)
(sand moving)
Everybody thinks sand is sand.
That's not true.
It's harder at different times of the year.
(waves crashing)
It's different in the morning than in the evening.
(distant waves crashing) (birds squawking)
You can tell by walking on it.
And so, one of the first things I do
is I'll walk the whole session that I wanna draw in.
See where it's damp and where it's dry.
Feel how hard it is.
Where it softness up.
And then, I just kinda go in to the center,
and when I'm ready...
(sand moving)
Takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to draw one.
(sand moving)
If there's anything on the beach when I get there,
I work around it and I incorporate it.
The more rocks, the better.
(waves crashing) (distant birds squawking)
The sound of the ocean is there all the time for me.
(sand moving)
The sound of my staff running through the sand.
(sand moving)
Oh, what a sound.
(sand moving)
It's amazing how loud it can get.
(sand moving)
After the first line is drawn,
everything else just kinda goes on autopilot.
And every now and then, something goes wrong.
(distant waves)
So, I just got to take a deep breath,
- Let's see.
[Denny Voiceover] get corrected on the flying,
- Okay, let's take this one to this one.
[Denny Voiceover] and carry on.
(sand moving)
- That's it.
Labyrinth done, except for the grooming.
(raking sand)
- [Denny Voiceover] I have Labyrinth groomers
that actual come down, volunteers.
- [Denny] You wanna help too?
- [Girl] Uh huh.
- Okay.
Let's grab a couple of rakes.
- [Denny Voiceover] I draw it out with my staff,
but I have my groomers go over my staff mark with the rakes.
- [Denny] See how it's roughed up now?
- [Girl] Mm huh.
- Okay, and then, you just continue through here.
Beautiful.
We got us another labyrinth groomer.
- [Denny Voiceover] So, it's a combined art form.
It's them and me.
(distant waves)
Why do I do it?
First of all, I do it for me.
The sensation I get in that hour or two that I'm drawing,
you can't replace it with anything.
(sand moving)
To see a blank piece of sand,
take my staff to it,
and leave my mark.
And then, it becomes more in that as people come,
- You wanna walk my Labyrinth?
One path.
No dead ends, no wrong turns.
- [Man] Should we do it?
Let's do it.
- [Denny] Absolutely.
- [Man] Thanks a lot.
- [Denny Voiceover] I guess my main hope for anybody
that walks one of my sand labyrinth is
to have them enjoy the experience.
Forget about their other obligations, their other concerns.
(distant waves crashing)
The rhythm, the movement, that peacefulness,
has an effect on the physical body.
Anytime you can go inward and lose that other distraction,
you're helping your mental health.
(waves crashing)
The ocean will reclaim it.
And, I have no problem with that.
(waves crashing)
Sometimes, it comes up gently
and just kinda dissolve the sand and the grooming away.
Other times, it comes up
and takes a whole big bite out of it.
(distant waves crashing)
But, you wanna see it.
You wanna see the ocean come in and reclaim its own.
(waves crashing) (birds chirping)
And, it's one thing to be on the Oregon Coast,
but to combine that with the sacredness
and spiritually of a labyrinth.
I think that's what I'm after.
(waves crashing) (birds squawking)