There's an artist whose work I am totally (newly) crushing on. I had heard of Andy Goldsworthy a few years ago, but kind of filed him in the back of my dusty head somewhere over the last few years. I was looking for an artist & project to teach at my daughter's school this month and stumbled back across him.
I am crazy about the idea of making art for art's sake. It is so easy to become attached to the things we create. I cannot imagine being in the mindset that all of my works created in order to
d i s i p a t e. Furthermore, Goldsworthy often produces his sculptures far away form any normal human pathways, so there is the potential that the only person who will see the piece in real life is the artist himself. Luckily, Goldsworthy documents his art in photographs so that the rest of us can taste a slice of what he has made. I imagine that a photograph is nowhere near as emotive as seeing his sculptures in the wild: kinetic, soulful, fragile, audacious and powerful. We hold on to our things so very much in this culture, that it is hard to wrap my head around an artist that does exactly the opposite that every time he creates. Every time. Fascinating.
I presented a few clips from the documentary, Rivers and Tides, to my daughter's class. We also flipped through several beautiful books of Goldsworthy's artwork. The kids were as fascinated as I was at his simple, yet extremely sophisticated works. Goldsworthy's art is stunning and fantastic, yet speaks to us on a Jungian, collective conscious level.
Kids are natural artists. It is insane what comes out of their souls when they are allowed the freedom to express themselves through art. Photos below of some of their creations.
