One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole. I find nature as a whole disturbing. Nature can be harsh – difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful. You couldn't walk five minutes from here without coming across something that is dead or decaying.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the coexistence of beauty and harshness in nature.
In this quote, Andy Goldsworthy reflects on the duality of nature, acknowledging that while it possesses stunning beauty, it is also a realm filled with decay and brutality. He emphasizes that as an artist, he must work within the parameters set by nature, confronting its raw and sometimes disturbing realities while still appreciating its overall essence.
Themes
NatureBeautyHarshnessDecayArt
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a conservation workshop might quote this to illustrate the complexities of environmental work.
More from Andy Goldsworthy
All quotes →Time gives growth, it gives continuity and it gives change. And in the case of some sculptures, time gives a patina to them.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
I am not a performer but occasionally I deliberately work in a public context. Some sculptures need the movement of people around them to work.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. The energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within. The weather--rain, sun, snow, hail, mist, calm--is that external space made visible. When I touch a rock, I am touching and working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings, and the way it sits tells how it came to be there.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
There is life in a stone. Any stone that sits in a field or lies on a beach takes on the memory of that place. You can feel that stones have witnessed so many things.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
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