Quote

When I’m working with materials it’s not just the leaf or the stone, it’s the processes that are behind them that are important. That’s what I’m trying to understand, not a single isolated object but nature as a whole.

Andy Goldsworthy

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Andy Goldsworthy
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 25
Artist
Environmental Artist
Environmentalist
Land Artist
Photographer
Sculptor
County Palatine of Chester
Andi Gōruzuwājī
Andrew Goldsworthy
Trying
Behind
Processes
Single
Isolated
Working
Stone
Understand
Object
Process
Stones
Nature
Materials
Whole
Objects
Leafs
Important
Behinds
Leaf

More quotes by Andy Goldsworthy

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I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole.
Andy Goldsworthy
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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 Goldsworthy
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Art is not a career - it's a life.
Andy Goldsworthy
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In contact with materials, I can see so much more with my hands than I can just with my eyes. I'm a participant, not a spectator. I see myself both as an object and a material, and the human presence is really important to the landscapes in which I work.
Andy Goldsworthy
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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 Goldsworthy
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I go way beyond just the wood and stone but to the process of growth and farming and the tensions between the two.
Andy Goldsworthy
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My work comes first, reasons for it follow.
Andy Goldsworthy
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You must have something new in a landscape as well as something old, something that's dying and something that's being born.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I have to understand the nature of change. And I cannot just work with stone or the more permanent materials. I need to work with leaves and ice and snow and mud and clay and water and the rising tide and the wind and all these.
Andy Goldsworthy
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A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Ephemeral work made outside, for and about a day, lies at the core of my art and its making must be kept private.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The reason why the stone is red is its iron content, which is also why our blood is red.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Occasionally I have come across a last patch of snow on top of a mountain in late May or June. There's something very powerful about finding snow in summer.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The first snowball I froze was put in my mother's deep freeze when I was in my early 20s.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I'm not a performer, in that I don't like the public, but I work in that respect.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Everything has the energy of its making inside it.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I love the winter. Well, I love all the seasons, but the winter is possibly one of the most intense.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The main reason I went to digital was because I got time-lapse, video, and still images all in one camera. Having a minimal amount of gear is really important for someone who wants to walk around. That allowed me to have this flexibility to document things in different ways.
Andy Goldsworthy
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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.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Ideas must be put to the test. That's why we make things otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realization. I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work.
Andy Goldsworthy