Andy Goldsworthy

For the month of April, we are studying and working with Beautiful Stuff. Our classroom has chosen to do an artist study on natural artist Andy Goldsworthy.

Andy Goldsworthy
Born on July 26, 1956, Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. The materials used in Andy Goldsworthy's art often include brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." Goldsworthy is generally considered the founder of modern rock balancing. For his ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials.

See some of Andy Goldsworthy's work here

The students have been exploring many natural materials like sticks, stones, leaves, pine cones, etc. They have been sorting and making patterns.

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You can try this at home with natural materials found in your yard or on the sidewalk. Balancing rocks, making patterns with sticks and leaves or lining blades of grass.
The wonderful thing about Andy Goldsworthy's art is that anyone can do it anywhere!

If you have any new ideas or tried any of these at home, please share them with us in the comments!