Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy, OBEis a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth26 July 1956
Complete control can be the death of a work.
stones heat bigs
I soon realised that what had happened on a small scale cannot necessarily be repeated on a larger scale. The stones were so big that the amount of heat required was prohibitively expensive and wasteful.
projects bigs finished
When I do the permanent projects or the big projects, when a work is finished, that's the beginning of its life.
art essence drawing
The essence of drawing is the line exploring space.
art years people
My art recognizes the human place, the human context - especially in Britain, which is a landscape so worked by people for thousands of years, written, deeply ingrained with the presence of people.
fall opportunity weather
For me looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. Place is found by walking, direction determined by weather and season. I take the opportunity each day offers: if it is snowing, I work in snow, at leaf-fall it will be leaves; a blown over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches.
ice wind snow
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.
hands results persons
The things that I make are that which a person will make. They're not meant to mimic nature. They are nothing but the result of a hand of a person.
performers
I'm not a performer, in that I don't like the public, but I work in that respect.
land weather understanding
The process of growth is obviously critical to my understanding of the land and myself. So the process is far more unpredictable with far more compromises with the day, the weather, the material.
sculpture income source
The main source of my income is through the commissions of the large-scale works and big sculptures, the projects.
blood light growth
Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work.
interesting able sometimes
Not being able to touch is sometimes as interesting as being able to touch.
winter snow quality
Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.