The Vine Woman, Laura Spector

Great story in the NYTimes about Laura Spector who goes out into the woods alone and cuts down all the vine(s) she can pull out to make something great out of something very bad.

[From the Laura Spector website.]

Apparently she targets Bitttersweet or Asiatic vine Celastrus orbiculata which has run amok in her part of the “woods”.

Her specialty, apparently a little of everything-sconces, mirrors, arches, furniture, etc. Good for her!

From the story:

“I go out into the woods alone, everywhere,” she said. “And I go deep,
a mile or two in from roads. The hardest part is schlepping the stuff
out alone. I have letters of permission from places like the Aspetuck
Land Trust and Aquarion, the water company. They’re happy to lead me to
the worst infestations, as long as I indemnify them in case I fall.”

Here’s another great piece from Laura’s website; which I am linking you to, the NYTimes does not.

[ One of Laura's benches, I love that Koa wood slab.]

Great stuff, really great imagination. In her own words:

My work is unique in that it is influenced by the rich
and decorative18th Century British Romantic tradition.
British rustic is unique from its more familiar American
cousin, in that its graceful lines follow nature’s
whimsy yet suggest the complexity of wrought ironwork.

Finally this piece of railing:

[Very nice, keep up the good work Laura. ]

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Design Process

Here is a look at a backyard for a couple who does a lot of entertaining, and needs the appropriate space to do just that-entertain in a highly stylized way.

[Everything is new or different.]

The patio is extra large to accommodate a tent for larger more formal gatherings.

More on this job over the next week.

This black and white line drawing ws done for me, this is my creative process as I think my way through a space. how it will look, how it will feel.

From here I normally do some sort of color rendering to show the client. This job was a little different, there were already a lot of color renderings showing different area’s of the property.
So . . . I threw in a couple line drawings along with a lot of color renderings.  Just to keep things “a little different”.

Spatial Design

From the hollowness arises the reality of the vesselFrom it’s empty space arises the reality of the building.   . . . Lao-Tse

Creation:

A creation in space is an interweaving of parts of space.  . . . Moholy-Nagy

Architecture . . . is the beautiful and serious game of space. -Willem Dudok

From the Sketchbook (3)

[ Rotring art pen(1.1) and 4 colored pencils. ]

Yes, I know I said . . . “Enough of the snow already!”

Now the rain.

[ Flooding in Zoar, Ohio.]

The media:

[What's he filming?]

The office:

[ No one's working today, no place to park anyway.]

From the Sketchbook (2)

The other day I posted this surreal scene in colored pencils and ink. Here’s another; same style, I think this is a little more realistic and good practice for a “job-like” rendering.

[I use Berol PRISMACOLOR, and Derwent Studio colored pencils.]

Hey! what can I say. I like to draw goofy trees!

Fireplace Posibility (5)

Back in the last post we(actually it’s just “I”) were trying to pull all the previous post together about this custom designed outdoor fireplace with wood storage as part of the focal point this fireplace is to become . . . a confusing sentence I think.

What I am trying to say is that it’s more than a fireplace, it’s a gathering space, a space of big magic/mojo/whoopee etc.

It’s big stone, and we want to put it together in an artistic and a memorable way, we want big boulders around it, and benches that look like they appeared from somewhere special-they are going to be custom designed and built for this space.

So the design for this is taking some time, some back and forth, so here is where we are at.

[ Focus on the bottom 2 images-a cross between the two.]

So this is the latest design that I have come up with.

[This is the latest design w/large opening and fancy work around storage.]

Is this it?

I’m not sure if I have captured the rugged look of the stone surrounding the fireplace as it’s shown in the lower right of the top picture.

Do I like the way the storage area works with the actual fireplace opening. Yes . . . and no.

Yes . . .it’s unique.

No . . . because I am not totally sold on the surrounds and how they look together, I’m just not sure.

Will it work with the rest of the area?

Absolutely, of this I have no doubt. You walk down into this area, you look down into this area. There is a large canopy of trees surrounding the area, to me this is a perfect setting to create this type of “pit” area.

Rugged, remote, a forest around, with a lake close at hand . . . it’s gonna be awesome.

Finding, and working with the right mason should be fun because this will take “the right guy” out of his normal mode and give him a chance to do some real creative work.

The design/drawing sets the tone, then the mason and “the stone” bring it to life”.

The stone.

There will need to be some work done here to find the right stone to pull this look off.

We may have to cull through quite a bit to get the stone to create the look we are after. To get the joinery we are after.

The base stones are critical, if they work out right it will create a feature that looks anchored in.

The next phase.

The client will need to take a look, if this drawing is close we can move on and start figuring out how to lay out the patio, where the fireplace best fits, find the other stone for the out-croppings, and also determine how many benches we need/can/want to put in.

I will keep posting on this project. If I doodle another fireplace I’ll post it-maybe another idea will come during a warm-up drawing, or just fooling around with the pencil.

The main thing is to now get together a lay-out of the entire patio, I was requested to do something around 1,200 sq. ft.

Fireplace Posibility (4)

After some lengthy deliberation by the clients we are now closer to a final design for the large patio fireplace discussed in previous post. This was the last post where I posted a rendering showing large storage and a more conventional firebox and stone surround.

Before that I posted the below shot:

[Let's focus on the bottom rendering from the sketchbook.]

The clients really like the look of the firebox and the stone surrounding it.

This look is very atypical, very atypical. In a time when more and more outdoor fireplaces are being built with fake/simulated stone(I like to call it “lick-n-stick”) creating a average generic look, this fireplace would really catch the eye.

But . . . but the wood storage is not quite what the clients are after. Especially when you compare it to other possibilities shown to them.

They referred me back to this drawing for the wood storage area.

[Please focus on the rendering at the bottom. ]

This image was also posted, it was the 1st in the series discussing this fireplace, patio, and boulder out-cropping all tied into one awesome designed space.

This means I have been asked to combine that element-the square’er’ box with some sort of arch onto the fireplace with the large more rustic stone and a more random look to the “edges”.

So what will I do? I will try and come up with something that satisfies that criteria, and if I feel that all the requested elements fit together we’ll run with it.

If I don’t.

Then I’ll show the clients the working drawings and explain my reasoning for not liking how it all “doesn’t come together”.

From the Sketchbook

[ Working by doodling with color pencils. ]

Enough of the Snow Already (2)

With weather like this customers thoughts have hardly turned to Spring and their new landscapes. Right now the goal for most is to get through this mess we are in again.

[ In the beginning. ]

A little later . . .

[ Less than a mile from the house. ]

The birds are looking for something to eat . . .

[ Cardinals aplenty at our stump feeders. ]

The garden sleeps.

We ask a lot of this space come Spring. From the vegetable areas, to the herb pots, the climbers, and the flowers from the cut-garden area. So much, from so little space.

[ Not too long from now herbs, peppers, melons and dahlia's. ]

These pots look great even in the winter . . .

[ I really like these "pots", even though they're not pots. ]

We may be snowed in, the fireplace is working hard. The snow . . . it’s okay. Spring really is right around the corner.

A Simple Landscape Rendering

A simple rendering from a long ago design. I decided something a little lighter than my last post is needed today, so here we are.

I have decided to share this rendering for a planting area along a walkway and up against a 10′ high modular block wall. The planting also had to do double duty, in the sense that we were looking for a way to hide the “underneath” of the staircase.

Did it work?

Here’s a after picture taken some months later of the same site.

[ Not quite the same angle but you see the concept.]

Here’s another angle across the backyard.

[ The steps are just off to the right. ]

Was this conceptual perfect? No . . . of course not, the idea of the conceptual is to get the juices flowing, create some excitement between the homeowner, their site and the Designer’s idea’s.

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Addendum: When these pictures were taken no one had been living in the house for over 5 month’s. The owner’s had built there dream home only to move away because the dream job offer came along. At last account the house had been empty for over a year.

The Blue Man Group and Creativity

What is it that sets the creative individual from the uncreative, unable to create individual? Is creativity something that can be learned? Can it be nurtured, developed, accelerated? In children? In adults? In children only?

Can creativity be discovered? Uncovered? Can creativity be released? Unchained? Is creativity hidden, needing only the right vehicle or situation to be released?

Can we all be/become creative?

In a profession where creativity is of up most importance(Landscape Design) creativity is sorely lacking. Landscape Design has become a profession where mediocrity has become the accepted norm. Where the routine is good, and the overdone, bloated landscape is great.

What happened?

Or in reality has it always been this way? Has the mediocre always been acceptable? Has the bar always been this low? Lower? and where does the constant barrage of today’s media play into how we determine the accepted level?

I am asking all these questions because of something I was watching today on HDNet(another good topic on creativity), it was a Blue Man Concert . . . . .

I watched with complete amazement, humor, enjoyment and awe . . .

• who else in the entire would plays PVC pipe,
• uses wind vibration as a musical instrument,
• plays the strings of a baby grand piano,
• spits paint on audience members(who gladly accepted spitted paint),
• oh, and by the way . . . paints themselves solid blue
• never talks(talks) to the audience . . .
• etc, etc, etc . . .

On top of that, they play really great music with a solid group of professional musicians. totally engaging their audience without ever mentioning “we’re so happy to be in _______ “, or “How ya’ll doing out there”.

[A Blue Man video on Global Warming***]

Blue Man Group entertains, and they entertain very well, at a very high level the entire show through the music and the visual, and the emotional attachment to their audience. Yes other musicians do as well, but no one does this like the Blue Man Goup.

When you equate the tag, “No one else does . . . . . . . . . . . ” That implies they’ve reached a level or creativity, and professionalism/emotional response unlike any other. The same could be said for any profession in the World.

When you start that sort of list thing why are there so few people on the “no one else does . . . .” list in every profession?

Why is creativity so limited? Billions of people, billions of people . . . yet, so few creative people?

I have always wondered about this? The “why don’t more people take more time to look for a more innovative solution?”. Especially in my field.

I sort of take it for granted that Landscape Designers(paid landscape designers) are in this profession because we get to promote our creativity, and then I am constantly amazed at how often the lazy, simplistic, “over and over” solution becomes the answer.

Change

Why is that? Maybe the answer is not about creativity, but laziness . . . mental laziness. The unwillingness to go the extra thought, the extra sketch, the extra ten minutes, the extra “what if?.

The “what if”

My former partner Richard Dube’ what great at explaining the “what if”, he loved talking about this as a creative teaching tool. We’d have exercises where the Designer would look at the site and ask the question . . .

• “What if A. E. Bye, or Martha Schwartz was designing this space”?
• “What if Olmstead was designing this space”?
• “What if Ryan Gainey was designing this space”?
• “What if (insert best designer you know” was designing this space”?

This was Richard’s (WCI’s) way of asking a designer to step out from their comfort zone. To look at a different way of designing the space.

“What if Rick Anderson, Richard L. Dube was designing this space“?

To get beyond the obvious answer 101. Is it extra work? Yep, you’re damn right it is, and maybe that’s part of the problem.

Refuse to settle

• Why settle for the obvious answer?
• Look beyond, ask yourself what someone else would do with the space.
• Turn the drawing upside down.
• Draw it on brown paper.
• Sketch with a crayon, a charcoal pencil.
• Take the sketch out on you back patio.
• Draw at 2:00AM.
• Listen to some different music while you work.
• Read something outside the profession of Landscape Design.
• Watch a Blue Man Group video.
• Come up with another solution to look at your work differently
• Refuse to settle for the easy, obvious, lazy answer.

Look around

I have talked to other creative people and something else I’ve noticed that runs across all fields. Creative types are curious people who are “damn curious people”.

In some creative types this curiosity is insatiable. Their appetite for learning about not only what people do in their field seek out, but this desire extends into other professions/trades. Curious, curiouser, and damn curious. I mean the Blue Man Groups plays PVC pipe . . . c’mon, PVC pipe, where in the hell did that come from?

Have you seen any of Martha Schwartz’s work? I’m still curious about how she decides to pull those elements together for a project. Wild stuff.

So what are some ways to be curious. Really, when you think about it; asking how to go about being curious . . . seems strangely curious!

• Read a book on lighting-stage sets.
• Go to a conference on cement.
• Go to a trade show where the sell tools to fabricate stone.
• Learn how to paint in acrylics.
• Listen to a lot of jazz(it’s about the rhythm’s). Join the local bird club.
• Go to a national pond conference event.

Be curious about everything, and anything about everything affecting the FIELD of Landscape Design. It’s a great big damn profession and it’s beautiful, wonderful and challenging.

“It don’t mean a thing, if it don’t got that swing.” -Duke Ellington

Failure

Maybe this is the real killer of creativity . . .

The fear of failure.

“Oh my God, they won’t like this, in fact they’re going to hate it. Laugh me right out of the room.“

I have it, not like I used to, I fought it and mostly won. But the fear of failure has a powerful grip . . . a fear that can stop most of us instantly turning us into a slobbering, whimpering, frozen blob of a Jello-like state. Incapable of making any sort of decision, let alone a stroke of the pencil.

Sound Familiar? Am I striking a chord? Hopefully not, hopefully this is a creativity killer you have not had to deal with, or had to overcome. Some Designers never do overcome this fear, paralyzed at the level of mediocrity, for all eternity-yikes!

Some folks never even become designers for fear of rejection The “NO“. Unable to think about even hearing no, let alone being told “No this is not what I wanted, you’re WRONG!“

For a lot of folks, maybe most folks(remember-6 billion+ on the planet) being told “No” is something they’re incapable of handling. It’s been decided that they are not going to go through life having to deal with a job where being told “No” is not part of their make-up.

They are not going to put their thoughts, ideas, hard-work on the line . . . only to be rejected by someone, only to be personally rejected. After all it’s you and “your” ideas . . . personally rejected, the proverbial “slap-in-the-face”.

Or is it?

I, and many other experienced Designers have learned a secret.

“Never take your design work personally” -Experienced Landscape Designers

A key to getting away from the fear factor is realizing you are actually designing for someone else! Hey how about that? This isn’t your design-it’s their design. Their design done by you for their space/property/landscape/home.

Ta-da

Listen . . . you take your experience, their site, and their ideas, and you come up with a solution for their space. If they don’t like it, or don’t want it, it’s because your design didn’t fit their:

• needs
• desire
• income
• dreams
• wants
• goals, etc.

Yes, you have failed as a designer, or I should say your design for their space has failed.

Have you failed? Maybe.

1. Maybe you don’t have enough experience as a designer for that kind of particular project(experience does count in this field).
2. Maybe you didn’t listen closely enough during the interview process-ask the right questions, or interpret their answers correctly.
3. Maybe, just maybe you didn’t listen closely enough to the demands of the site.

Back to the big 3 again:

Designer experience(s), Clients need, Site, the needs of the site

But in no way does this knock you as a person, or who you are as a person . . . your experience(maybe), but not you personally. That’s why fear here should not be a factor. Perform the service and let the owner of the site decide their space.

Let me say this . . . the fear could be from something else here. Maybe, just maybe you interviewed poorly, or didn’t pay attention during the interview. You know, you let your mind wander away to somewhere else . . . you were not in this moment.

Maybe you didn’t do your due diligence when studying the site, paying attention to it’s needs. Not enough pictures, the wrong pictures. Now you’re afraid.

Afraid with reason.

Back to due diligence, doing the work, not being lazy, exploring all options. Afraid of rejection because in your mind and heart you didn’t put in the proper legwork. You know/knew the design will not be the best it could possibly be. The most creative, the most sustainable, the most realistic. . . . . it’s a legitimate fear.

So do the homework, Do the research. Explore the profession, be curious about your profession and others, ask the what-if’s. Ask questions, question the mediocrity, never settle for the easy way out.

Maybe if more folks do this I won’t ask some many questions about creative people(or lack there-of). Maybe I won’t be so dismayed about the “accepted” level of “good enough”. Maybe we can all leave this place just a little better than we found it. In our own little creative way.

Be determined to be creative.

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***Global Warming: A subject for another day.