With the approach of Christmas came the close of college and a long awaited and deserved break from my landscape architecture course.
Although break isn’t quite the correct terminology as the workload has actually increased but within the confines of ones own home. So, me and the cats and have set to taking photos. They have come out particularly well despite being scared of the flash!
Two plant identification exams and technical drawing assignments later I was still battling on.
My colleagues and I had gone on a tour of London’s South Bank learning how to differentiate between granite, slate, basalt and every other hard material known to my tutor. I think there may be an awful lot more on the agenda in the Spring walkabout’s warmer weather, as by the time the sun set we were so frost-bitten we couldn’t give a damn between one bollard and another!
My dedication was rewarded the following week by a horrendous cold, but on the upside I talked my boss into buying me a new laptop so I have now managed to download AutoCAD in preparation of January’s crash course. The new techy toys nearly make it all worthwhile! Just eight hours of tutorials to undergo before then. Well, Christmas visits to relations can get extremely tedious so now I have the perfect excuse!
College stuff to do by January:-
- Fill my sketchbook - visit Tate Britain, visit Tate Modern, visit De La Warr - take notes and sketch.
- Watch arty films and review in sketchbook. Find images of Jan Svankmeyer & American Gangster.
- Take loads of Indigenous Colour photos of Hastings and print them - fill sketcbook.
- Print La Majorelle photos for sketchbook & match paints if possible if have enough time!!
- Collage from Norway Exhibition for sketchbook
- Mount photos of Sensuous, Nightmare, Memory
- Make a film . . . . . . . .argh!!!!
- Complete Plant Design Assignment - 12 sheets of A1
- Take photos of model and mount.
- Find images of plants through the seasons to add to Seasonal sheet.
- Sketch quarter plan within whole garden plan and photocopy endlessly.
- Annotate all pieces North.
- Name and label all sheets - yes I know that sounds obvious!!
- Read everything I have been given so far!!!
Don’t dare go to the library as it will become glaringly obvious what you don’t know. Be grateful for the little you do know.
In the meantime must remember to dress the tree, do the Christmas shopping, cook the turkey and have a holiday!
The first term’s called the "Honeymoon Term"! Yes, you know what that means, it can only get more intense!
After a fifteen year "sabbatical" in my educational studies I had decided it was about time I bit the bullet, and for once and for all, completely formalise my training in my chosen career. I could use the excuse that I’ve been so busy handling the marketing side of Greencraft and the general hustle and bustle of working in the landscaping industry. In all honesty I suppose I was dreading the idea of being sandwiched between a few dozen bright-eyed, bushy tailed, peachy keen students with nothing to worry them but a few student loans and where to find the nearest pub. Fortunately my fears were eventually laid to rest, as I found out sometime later, the class was filled with a diverse mix of all ages and backgrounds, stemming from a plethora of careers and with as many different goals for the future.
I eventually took the plunge after being invited to give a talk at a local horticultural college, in a lecture theatre to a row of nervous looking raw recruits, all competing for a handful of openings at Greencraft Ltd. I remember that decisive moment well, the moment when I decided I wanted to further my education. Perhaps it was in those few seconds silence, amongst the hushed tones of the audience, I shuffling my papers as they, the students, all with such exuberant hope in there eyes sat waiting with expectation. Whatever the trigger, I suddenly found myself overcome with a wave of nostalgia and some perturberance, as I reeled back to my own college days.
The major difference being I had originally snapped up a degree in English and American Literature at Canterbury, which I dare say on the surface sounds rather sumptuous. Although in truth that particular university’s campus had been designed by a former prison architect, someone who had years of experience in creating confusing and disorientating honeycombs of corridors and small windows. Whilst this friendly little college proffered a clean and pleasant environment, which came as a refreshing and rather unexpected surprise. I came to the conclusion there and then that modern education was for me. At the end of the talk I stepped up to a departmental head and enquired as to what it would take to become a fully qualified landscape architect, which it has since been revealed to me to be a lot of patience, diligence and cold hard cash! A brief introduction to a group of first year students bounding with enthusiasm and beaming smiles sealed the deal once and for all.
Shortly after, following a few weeks of rather over-officious form filling I was accepted at the University of Greenwich on a conversion course on a part-time basis which will encompass a total of three and a half years. I and my partner both agreed that in this present slump in the economy, this was indeed the time to invest in myself and my future through the honourable means of higher education. By which time I hope to fulfil a lifelong dream of becoming a professional landscape architect, earning, one hopes an eventual greater respect and understanding from both planning departments and construction companies through my own vision of the natural aesthetic.
We as a culture are finally offering landscape architecture the recognition it most rightly deserves, having followed the lead set by pioneers in horticulture, the corporate sector and government in Europe, the British bureaucracy and public tastes have finally given way and are at long last commissioning inspiring spaces. Only time will tell as to how the recession has affected plans for the most ambitious of projects, such as the Olympic development consortium, suffice to say it can only improve from now on.
My first round of education in so many years started with a bang or rather a crash course in technical drawing, three of the most intensive days of my life, this particular module normally being taught over a whole term. The effectiveness of this and my learning capacity has yet to be put into practice, however I daresay I will keep you fully posted on all the highs and lows of this brief foray into this most exacting of the design arts, as our first Hard Materials Technical Drawing assignment is due in before Christmas and I’m not sure I can recall the correct way to annotate a bench.
The next shock to my system was the Design & Communication element of the course, which involves an intensive three hour illustrative arts binge every Wednesday evening. In some sense it rings of an occupational therapy, after a long day of lectures, design workshops and multiple choice test, we can immerse ourselves in the finer aspects of this most practical and applicable of the visual arts.
More surprises would soon follow as I was suitably shell shocked by my rude awakening in to "life drawing", bearing in mind I had been denied the luxury of taking an Art ‘O’ Level at school by my mother. Although she did have a point as I would habitually convince friends and family members alike with the slightest ability to complete my art homework for me; so to say I was "rusty," was an understatement!
Within weeks I had made steady progress, I had freed up my hand, wrist, arm and mind, evolving a more sweeping and assured line, gradually transforming my deformed "potato people" into slightly less chaotic, more confidently expressed semblances of the human form. Next came weeks of colour theory, which to some degree I embraced as colour theory. Returning to the full spectrum of natures distinctive tones and hues certainly was a refreshing change, I felt my confidence growing, I took to new techniques and processes with an increasing aplomb, mixing paints and mediums I at long last felt the rush of creativity I had so long been missing in my life.
However there is no opportunity to rest on one’s proverbial laurels when it comes to our hectic timetable, and before long I was set another seemingly impossible task, I am about to commence my foray into the world of film. Although it has provided me with the perfect opportunity for some retail opportunity, a new camera should in some sense help me slip more comfortably into my new role of writer, actor, editor, cameraman and director. I’ve got to make a film!
I must make a small confession, I was tempted, if only for the briefest moment, to coerce my partner who as it happens is an artist into completing my "homework" for me . However he has made it as clear as day that he doesn’t want to be a landscape architect, all my feminine wiles have failed, the fluttering of eyelashes, pretty pleases and playful tantrums just won’t cut it with the veteran of my emotional ploys, Paul answered my request with a calm but firm and most definitely resounding "No!"
