Leonard Baskin, and Art by Artist

[The Funeral, where I found it]

This Leonard Baskin piece just got my eye and I thought I would share it here with all of you. As designers I think it is important we look at all artist and their mediums. After all artist and landscape designers are in the business of communicating.

True it may be that artist like Leonard Baskin are communicating something entirely different than what Landscape Designers are trying to communicate (1 dimensional art vs. 4 dimensional living art) . . . one thing is certain. We all are looking for an emotional response.

The longer I do what I do the more important other art forms become to me. I had heard older Landscape Designers talk about studying other disciplines earlier in my career, but I continued to miss the importance of what they were trying to tell me.

Study art, study photography, study nature. These studies will make you a better designer.

This is where most Professional Associations(Conferences/Workshops) miss the mark entirely. The lack of introducing/cross-promoting other disciplines; especially . . . especially when it comes to the teaching of Design lessens the Design process. By the ignoring of the design process.

I will continue to look for artist work that inspires me, or strikes a chord. I will continue to show the works of the ancients. I will continue to show other disciplines that could help make us better Landscape Designers. There is much to be learned by studying the work, the training, the thought process, the conceptual design(s) work away from the profession of Landscape Design.

Most Landscape Design is America is failing. It’s failing because of a lack of appreciation for what it really is; art in 4 dimensions, and the power design has in bringing forth an emotional response. This failing is part of the continued dumbing down of America. An America where the bar for mediocrity continues to drop lower and lower.

It’s time to stop the lowering of the bar.

I’m asking Designers to become pro-active, seek knowledge, and realize that good landscape Design is indeed art. Create the emotional response. I’ve always said if you can get someone to walk around the corner, and out of the client’s mouth comes an audible gasp, or a remark of “wow”, with the big eye look-then you’ve succeeded, you have provoked the response.