Soya Hirano -- Some of my random drawings

I'm afraid that all of my drawings are unclear by pencils or/and color pencils and incomplete because I'm so slow at drawing.

No.1 (left), April 24th, Bath Abbey ...While having dinner in front of a cafe, Andrew and I enjoyed a view of this abbey. This is my first sketch in the trip.



No.2 (right), April 25th, A Taxi Running on Broad Street in Bath, Drawn While I was Sitting in Front of the Pub Named "The Slug and Lettuce" ...Btw, before the pub I enjoyed eating dinner and sketching the street and afterwards moved in the pub and had a first and last glass of a cocktail named Sex on the Beach with five students of Hiram College.

No.3 (left), April 26th, Tintern Abbey (Ruin) in Chepstow

...The left wall seems to incline to the right, but that's my technical mistake in drawing. I should have drawn the wall perpendicular to the bottom of the sketch page. The stone abbey had apparently cleaned of plants off the walls when our study abroad group visited because it looks different from paintings of it by Edward Dayes in 1794 and by Thomas Girtin about 1793.

No.4 (right), April 28th, Palladian (neo-classical) Bridge in Alexander Pope's Prior Park in Bath ...This bridge illustrates Alexander Pope's achievement of fitting a human architectural work into the environment of the forest, pond, and grassy slope. The neoclassic bridge idealizes the British aristocratic artist and writer's peaceful landscape of balance between nature and civilization. No gold or marble overwhelms the order, as Pope would wish.

No.5 (left), April 29th, A Corner of Keble College Made of Brick in the Victorian Architectural Style in Oxford ...Founded in 1870, the mosaic and polychromatic brickwork of the outer walls of Keble College (one independent educational institution of Oxford University) was designed by William Butterfield (1814-1900) and reflects a Christianity theme of exaltation to the heaven. I think, our tour guide said that John Ruskin (I'm not sure if it was Ruskin, though, but somebody did for sure) decried Butterfield's brickwork design, but many people still liked it. More information may be found on http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/architecture. Due to my rough delineation of the building, I did not draw a correct number of the black squares on both sides of the triangular roofs. I am glad that I am not drawing this for a stringent architecture or drawing course that would dislike such inaccuracy.

No.6 (right), April 30th, Drawn from the Picture of William Morris' Medieval/Naturalist-Style Bedroom in a Pamphlet of Kelmscott Manor in Gloucestershire
...Reportedly Morris' second daughter May Morris (and maybe his wife Jane, too?) embroidered on the bed sheet and bed curtain, even though my drawing only shows a small part of her dedication for William's 60th birthday present. No pictures were allowed in the manor. I was a bit surprised by the fact that Jane Morris had a separate bedroom from her husband's, but our guide explained why briefly: her liaison with Dante G. Rossetti was no less shocking to her husband than her confession that she had never loved William Morris.

Sara Benedetto

So far we have had a wonderful, exhausting trip--in a good way! I've managed to find Starbucks' easily--in JFK, when we got to Bath, and once we arrived at Oxford today. The Starbucks siren calls out to me!! ;) .

The best parts of the trip for me have been Tintern Abbey, Stourhead and Glastonbury. On Monday we visited Tintern Abbey--the thing I was most excited to see when I saw the tentative itinerary months ago.
I read William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" freshman year at Hiram and it has remained with me since. Wordsworth identifies some things that may be difficult for everyone to put into words. He visits the abbey to escape from the "civilized world." My interpretation of his work is that he not only found in nature a place to escape, but a spiritual experience, as well. I identified with this when I first read his work because I often spend time in nature to escape the world--to think, write, meditate, admire the beauty found in nature and simply be with myself. Being immersed in nature and, in a way, away from the world, allows me to feel like my most complete self, something I think Wordsworth may have been feeling as well when he visited Tintern Abbey.

At Tintern Abbey we talked about the way the grounds are taken care of, how it is not truly "natural." This relates to a text we read for class News from Nowhere. Tintern Abbey is supposed to be picturesque, but is actually partly artificial in its beauty. Is any nature not artifical or man altered in some way? In News from Nowhere Morris writes of a society that doesn't use all of it's land for things, but uses it simply for beauty. However, man still alters it to make it look how he wants, rather than simply letting it be "wild." This ties into a recurring theme that has come up in class discussions: What is wilderness? Does it truly exist? Some of the answers we have come up with is that humans imagine what wilderness is, but since it is something that is untouched by humanity once humans interact with land it is no longer wilderness. Whether or not Tintern Abbey is wild does not take away the elements of sublime found there. Not only the picture of the broken abbey against the fields and trees surrounding it, but the broken parts of the abbey contrasted against the larger part still standing, as well.

Though I enjoyed Tintern Abbey, I didn't have the same experience there that Wordsworth did. I felt more like this when I visited Stourhead and Glastonbury. Stourhead is a 2,000 acre estate of indescribable beauty. It was great walking through the garden, but the best part was when Erin and I climbed to see Apollo Tower. From there we had a great view of the path we'd walked--it was amazing. If only we'd known what was coming...later that day we went on the Glastonbury tour to see the remains of St. Michael's Chapel. I don't even want to tell you about the walk up there. Neverending steps, anyone? Everyone made it up though! A combination of sheer will and coffee (I'm speaking about me, of course ;) ). The view from the top made every step and sore muscle worth it. You could see the whole town from there, and being so high up was a strange feeling. There is something spiritual about being so high up and being able to see so much, and feel so small, and also about being in the presence of something so old with so much history. Many historical figures have allegedly been there in addition to millions of people overall. It's strange to think how many people have been there for different reasons, brought together by one thing, all connected in some small way.

Needless to say, I am enjoying the trip so far! I think everyone is. The group as a whole has been getting to know each other and so far this is a more than worthwhile experience. Still have time in Oxford and then London! AHHH! :)

On a slightly lighter note--Turkish coffee is good. ;) A bunch of us went to a Lebanese restaurant tonight. For those of you who might read this who love food, I have also had wonderful meals at a French restaurant, Indian, Japanese (Wagamama!) and English, of course. And plennntttyyyyy of coffee!

--Sara