ANLA Mgmt Clinic; Eric Wahl

Today’s keynote speaker was Eric Wahl on The Art of Vision and let me tell you something . . . it was art, art in every sense of the word.

From the opening line to the 1st note on U2 blasting onto the screen to the last note and brush stroke of a upside painted portrait of our 16th President-Abraham Lincoln. Simply put  . . . it was terrific.

In all my years of coming here it was only the 2nd time I have seen such a spontaneous outburst in the form of a standing ovation . . . a very rare happening for a public speaker, and about the highest honor a audience can give back.

Style, presentation, tone, visuals, music, montage(s) of images and music, along with performance. Well done.

Everybody likes to watch people draw, it comes across as magical. lines coming together and viola . . . images, forms, shapes . . . trust me, in my own little humble way in happens every time I’m scribbling in public.

Take that starting point, add a stage lights, 800+ in the crowd, music, visuals, energy and this artist who paints in great big bold graphic strokes on a blakc background . . . and you really got something.

If you ever get a chance to watch Eric perform, or speak-make the time, effort, and energy to go.

Tap into the wealth of ideas, creativity, and knowledge.

Bringing sand to the beach.

As an adult enjoy this idea of silliness.

Stop trying to be perfect, try for remarkable.

Stand for the aesthetic beauty of our environment, but also our sustainability.

The art of vision is couched in the purpose of reprogramming.

Drawing is a learned skill.

Eric Wahl from 02/08/09 ANLA Mgmt Clinic

More as we go along, be strong, be powerful, take a chance or two . . . you never know what might be in the envelope!

___________________________________________________________________________

Addendum: The other outburst, was for A.E. Bye in(I think) 1993 when the APLD was here. Mr. Bye was our guest keynoter.

His collective wisdom, insight, and vision concerning beauty and simplicity was delivered with great humility and simplicity.

The finest talk on design and the design profession I have ever heard . . . still to this day.

By Rick Anderson

The Whispering Crane Institute was originally formed to act as the umbrella organization for the Philosophy of Design Symposium, and other seminars and workshops given by Rick Anderson and Richard L. Dube’. In the year 2000 WCI became a sole proprietorship owned by Rick Anderson. Today the WCI provides design and consultation services for Landscape Contractors, acts as a Green Industry think tank, and provides training for others in the form of workshops, seminars, and individual consulting. The WCI also provides written material, opinions, case-studies and how-to articles for industry trade magazines.

2 comments

  1. Upon my more in-depth research of Erik Wahl, I stumbled across your site.

    I totally concur that his presentation was very inspiring and what he had to say, stuck. I feel that our industry binds itself in its old ways and methods and it is going to take a long term vision to see that we have to free ourselves from the shackles of how we have always done it. For the preservation and growth of our great industry, all entities will need to work together. Growers with retailers, growers with designers and LA’s. The change is coming and soon.

    I am on the ANLA Management Clinic committee (what a great experience in itself) and Erik’s presentation gives me ideas for next year’s Clinic.

    Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the remarks.

    Also get me back on the program!!! 🙂

Leave a comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: