barn as art

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This reminded me of the work of British sculptor and environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. You could call it, "Tennessee barn floating in yellow."

That's Bluff Mountain in the background.

- Photo taken in Sevier County

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order from chaos

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"Seeing clearly in a chaotic situation is the means by which an artist becomes a participant and gains control. It is the difference between a ship sinking or sailing in rough seas. I cannot change the force, but I can be witness to it. The intention is not to tame the chaos but to tap its energy," writes British environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy in his book “Stone.”

All of our lives fall into chaos from time to time, our workplaces become unbearable, loved ones become ill, but somehow we endure holding tight to the tiller.

In the case of the ethereal work pictured above, Goldsworthy looked at a section of the forest floor in the autumn, saw the haphazard, higgledy-piggledy disarray of the fallen elm leaves and rearranged them, creating something of amazing cosmic beauty.

Thus poising the proverbial question: Do we live in a random, chaotic universe or one of truly sublime order?

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rock art

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For over 30,000 years human hands have been picking up rocks to make art, or painting on cave walls. So art and people and rocks are a ternary that goes back longer than Uncle Ned whittled.

Early rock carvings were of voluptuous, fertile Venus figures; early cave paintings like at Chauvet in Southern France depict bears, horses, lions, panthers and other animals, but still it's artist and his media: rock.

If you want something to last—Parthenon, pyramids, Pietà—you make it out of rock.

Modern environmental artists like Andy Goldsworthy have simplified things, preferring to selectively stack stones in creative ways or places, but still it's art created by a human picking up a rock and rolling it around in his or her hands, considering the possibilities.

"Oh. What to do with this rock?"

Recently, we discovered a series of impromptu and impermanent rock sculptures in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the river just off the Alum Cave Trail. These instant creations are more ephemeral. With the heavy rains that have passed through the past few days, there's no way they survived. The rocks would have been reshuffled into the deck.

But for that day, the unknown artist's handiwork seemed as eternal as La Grotte Chauvet itself.

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diligentissima

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“Nihil est melius quam vita diligentissima.” i.e. Nothing is better than a most diligent life.

Diligent: adj: Marked by persevering, painstaking effort, i.e. being an author.

But, if you aspire to be an author, here are a few helpful hints: 1) Don’t quit your day job 2) Learn to exist on less sleep 3) Indeed, learn to exist on less of everything, 4) And by all means, learn to be most diligent. Like a rock wall created by artist Andy Goldsworthy, books are built one stone at a time and you often only have a vague notion of where you are headed.


- Photo of a stone wall by British environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK

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sculpted

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"Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality."

- British environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy

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stones

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“Fixed ideas prevent me from seeing clearly. My art makes me see again what is there, and in this respect I am also rediscovering the child within. In the past I have felt uncomfortable when my work has been associated with children because of the implication that what I do is merely play. Since having children of my own, however, and seeing the intensity with which they discover through play, I have to acknowledge this in my work as well.” - Andy Goldsworthy, from his book “Stone.”

Goldsworthy’s message is filled with wisdom. Fixed ideas DO prevent us from seeing. We should all approach each walk outdoors with no fixed ideas with the eyes of a child and a sense of wonder. If you are not familiar with the British environmental sculptor Goldsworthy, you should discover his work. (See my postings of March 5 and 6.)

Growing up with modest means in the mountains of East Tennessee, our toys were the rocks and sticks we found outside. Often, we would just pile up rocks. Goldsworthy has carried this sense of exploration to a most sublime conclusion, creating works of art that are as beautiful as they are natural. His book “Stone” is a portfolio of some of his creative explorations with found rocks, sticks, dirt, sand and stones. Look for it. Buy it!

Thanks, Karen Suzy.

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rivers and tides II

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"When I make a work," says environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, "I often go to the very edge of its collapse. And that's a beautiful balance."

It’s a beautiful balance when it holds its form, a pile of rocks or sticks or ice when it collapses.

Goldsworthy (see yesterday's posting) knows that all things are in the flow of time, in transition. Our world is dynamic. Even his most substantial pieces hang together precariously. His egg-shaped rock carins sit in empty fields defying the elements that will in time bring them down.

It’s inevitable.

- Thank you, Karen Suzy

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rivers and tides

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Nature is art.


And for British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy, nature IS his art.


The soft-spoken Goldsworthy creates site-specific sculpture out of leaves, sticks, rocks, sand, ice, whatever that is available. Unless he works with stone, most of his pieces only last for a matter of hours, or less. They are as ephemeral as nature itself. Ever changing, like the seasons, in transition, moving from one form to another. Often they are in or near water. He loves the fluidity of streams, rivers and tides. His muse must be a strong one, probably Gaia, i.e. Mother Earth; she certainly lives outdoors, a water sign: Pisces or Aquarius, I would imagine.


Goldsworthy may work for hours to create a piece, photograph it and then stand back to watch it fade away. Poof. By the end of the day, it's all gone. If you are not familiar with his name, then google it sometime and look at pictures of some of his creations. Prepare to be amazed. He makes it look effortless, but it is not. Pure genius.


After that, buy, rent or borrow the award-winning 2001 documentary “Rivers and Tides," and see how he does it. Watch a gifted artist; watch him work, think, create, flow into his work. Watch him build a unbelievably beautiful and delicate sculpture out of icicles. There's not an adjective in the English language that adequately describes it.


Thank you, Karen Suzy for sharing this with me.


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