making mazes

MAKING AMAZING MAZES THAT AMAZE

You may have noticed a new feature in the Funny Pages section of The Comet. Original mazes drawn by local artist Jessica Watson, or JessicaDawn.Co professionally. The Comet chatted with Watson about her love of making and completing mazes.

Tell us about your background and how you got interested in mazes? When did you start drawing your own?

Born and raised in the valley - as a teenager I sold mazes from some of the local restaurants for their children’s menus. I don’t remember a time before being interested in them, Queen of hearts, labyrinth, corn maze… I’ve been interested in mazes/paths, a long time. Raised in an orchard - walking up and down the rows. When I make a maze I often imagine myself walking inside of it.

There have been studies showing there are therapeutic benefits to completing a maze. Have you found that to be true?

I hadn’t heard that before. It definitely feels true to me.

Is the idea to make the maze challenging to do? Or are you more interested in building a satisfying route to the finish?

Both, it depends on who the maze is for. I do different levels of mazes, some absolutely challenging and frustrating - seemingly impossible. Others that are simple

Talk about your process when starting a new maze. Do you start with a complete path and fill the rest in? Or does it all develop as you go?

When I first started doing it, it developed as I went. Then I tried starting with the style and then added the path and I have been enjoying that process. It doesn’t have to be just a start and a finish with one path. That’s the classic version and most of my mazes are like that. But I also love to make mazes like this month’s (page 36) where there’s more than one path and the journey is unexpected

I also illustrate books My1st.com and my website is JessicaDawn.co, Instagram is also JessicaDawn.Co. C