OU blog

Personal Blogs

Design Museum

Do you really want me? Do you really love me?

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday, 31 May 2022, 14:38

An opportunity arose to work for The OU again so I applied; let's see what happens. Maybe departing after just one year the first time round was a mistake that I can never put right - but that was then, and now is now. The kids have left school, gone through university and settled down and 'we' are free to move ... within reason. We'll see. Meanwhile, the two big events of this last week have been trips to Rodmell Food Forest and to Brighton Open Art Houses 2022. 

A collage of photographs of Rodmell Food Forest showing a Siberian Pea Tree and a Toona Tree.

The Rodmell Food Forest was an eye-opener. I garden on chalk so know how tough it is to develop a sound soil. It has taken me over 12 years to grow substantial shrubs and hedging through total lawn destruction, mulching with kitchen waste and all cuttings, and while there was lawn to nibble my secret weapon - guinea-pigs. (I'm told a goat is handy at the job too. Up in Cumbria we used a small herd of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs to root up the foot-trodden turf). 

I know now to mulch intensively, keyhole plant, collect rainwater, encourage birds and other kritters to look after the garden for me. We may stop short of having a composting toilet to collect dry human waste - though the head garden Marc Stenham recommended it - that and comfrey leaves.

Cover for work featuring figures underwater by Patsy McArthur

We left Brighton Open Art Houses late - again. We always mean to make an early start and be picking off a last trail or returning to a favourite one by the end of the month. Here we are trying to cover too much ground on the last afternoon and it went slightly pear-shaped, largely because we also thought we could ditch the car and do it on foot. We spent most of the allotted 4 hours treading the pavements of Brighton seafront; there were some gems though, I loved a return visit to Sussex County Arts Club where I took up life drawing in 2016 and to the work of figurate fine artist Patsy McArthur. I aspire to paint large, on a big canvas or mural in scale. 

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Design Museum

The Fun Continues

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 29 Jun 2018, 06:43

Students from GB MET showcase their work

End of Year Fine Art & 3D 2018, York Hall, Greater Brighton Metropolitan College

The first stitch of the images and the magic begins. Choices have to be made over labels, over direction or the words used with each tag. Still testing what can be done already I see the need and value of some deeper planning. If this is to be seen by prospective students and parents then some indication of practice would be helpful - in fact the kind of information shown in the cards on each student: what they studied, where they are going next and a little about their learning experience.

And some gamification: a quest, in which a range of art materials have been placed around the hall to collect, or a quiz, and some video as well as the planned mid and close-up shots.

In brief, it requires a brief. To avoid the criticism of 'so what?' I need to address these questions:

What is the problem?

Who are we speaking to?

What do we want to say?

What do we want them to take away from this message?

I might answer:

Future students and parents don't realise the quality of achievement possible and the paths that this opens up to an arts student.

We are speaking to future students and their parents, rather than celebrating the work of those shown here - who have, after all, made the next step already.

We want to show and say what a wonderful experience it is to be a student at GB MET.

We want them to apply. We want them to feel enlightened and excited about their immediate future.

 

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Design Museum

Final module to complete the MAODE

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Monday, 8 Oct 2012, 05:22

Successfully registered and signed up for H810: accessibility - starting September with a January finish. This will complete my first, extraordinary OU Journey after three years.

Intellectually challenging, rigorous, comprehensive, expansive and life transforming. It took a while but I am now working for a world leader creating e-learning resources for companies - manager training for the most part.

It won't end here. I have my eye on a History MA. I've discussed this with student services. Starting September 2013 in two parts this will take me into the Centenerary of that horror, the 'war to end war' (HGWells) 1914-1918 that I blog about at www.machineguncorps.com

History would have been my first degree decades ago had I not got cold feet and switched to Geography. And an MA in Fine Art (which had been on the cards in 2010 when I elected for the MAODE.

I guess that's the next decad taken care of!

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 11292753