Andy Goldsworthy — Environmental Artist

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who works in partnership with nature and natural surroundings to create an art form. His medium is nature itself and his preferred studio is the outdoors. Goldsworthy’s artwork emphasizes the relationship of human existence within nature. His work shows that we, as humans, have some capability of controlling nature, but ultimately, nature controls us.

“Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature.”

Goldsworthy explores and experiments with various natural materiel such as brightly-colored flowers, leaves, grasses, pinecones, twigs, thorns, sand, mud, stones, wood, icicles, and snow. The seasons and weather determine the materials and the subject matter of his projects. With no preconceived ideas about what will be created, he relies on what nature will give him. Goldsworthy “feels” the energy from nature and transcends that energy into an art form.

“Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. The energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within. The weather--rain, sun, snow, hail, mist, calm--is that external space made visible. When I touch a rock, I am touching and working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings, and the way it sits tells how it came to be there.”

Photography plays a crucial role in his art. Goldsworthy regards all his creations as transient, or ephemeral. He photographs each piece only once just after he makes it, marking the moment when the work is most alive. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. For these short-lived works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials. He appreciates that process and decay are unspoken.

“I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and “found” tools--a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.”

Rivers and Tides is a documentary depicting the magical relationship between art and nature while painting a visually fascinating portrait of the artist. The film follows Goldsworthy all over the world as he demonstrates and opens up about his unique creative process. My husband (a writer) and I own this DVD and every so often watch it just for inspiration . . . something all artists alike can treasure. 

Cuban Art & the Passing of Ruperto Jay Matamoros

Cuba is an island filled with color and movement . . . an artistically influenced culture, and painting is the most true expression of fine arts on the island. A varied cultural blend of African, European, and North American visual design, it reflects the cultural variety of Cuba. The first signs of creative expression came from aboriginal cave paintings. Unfortunately, when these communities vanished, the paintings discontinued. The Spanish conquest brought a religious form of painting, one connected to catholic liturgy. The colonial period saw foreign graphic artists and illustrators migrating to the island to depict the landscapes, customs, and memorable places in their artwork. National painting began to take spirit during the mid 19th century. Taste and the appreciation of painting developed in Cuba as the intellectual environment of the island was introduced to new influences. Commercialization of Cuban art was not set in motion until the 20th century. The artists of this period were dedicated to originality, while embracing the heritage of their island.

Today, Cuban artists are plentiful and flourishing in a mixture of past and future, all the while preserving the characteristics of Cuban individuality. One of the island’s supreme exemplars of naïf painting (a naive, simplistic, childlike style), was Ruperto Jay Matamoros who passed away in Havana this past year 2007, just one month  before his 96th birthday. The National Plastic Arts laurate and National Visual Arts prize winner in 2000 was buried in his home town of San Luis, in eastern Santiago de Cuba. Matamoros started creating on canvas at an early age with expressions of what he saw in the local landscape, the flora and fauna, and the people who lived in the countryside. However, it wasn’t until later in life when he finished his duties as a driver, plumber, gardener, messenger, and interior decorator, did his artistic talent truly blossom.

Serigraph, Ruperto Jay Matamoros

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibition entitled “Cuba: Art and History from 1868 to Today.” This is the first time the North has received so many works that tell the visual arts history of such an amazing country like Cuba. More than a 100 paintings and posters, 200 photographs and documents, sculptures, mechanisms, videos, film excerpts, and music embrace the exhibition with works loaned by Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Cuban Photographic Library, and other cultural institutions on the island, as well as the New York Museum of Modern Art. One of the exhibition’s centerpieces is an enormous, 55-square-meter mural created in 1967 by 100 artists from different countries. The collective mural of the Salon de Mai was created in Havana the night of July 17, during an important international visual arts event. It is the first time it has been exhibited outside of Cuba since 1968.

Arte de Cuba (CubanArt.org) is an on-line gallery, an idea conceived by the Eastern Cuba Cultural Exchange Association with the objective “to foster an environment of goodwill through the sharing of cultural ideas and the celebration of diversity.” The intention of the website is to help acquire much needed art supplies & reading materials for the artists to share and to give travel opportunity to artists through arranging exhibitions to show their artwork.

Historical Oil Paintings Found in Afghanistan

The oldest known oil painting, dating from 650 A.D., has been found in caves in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. This discovery by a team of Japanese, European, and US scientists, tends to dispel a universal thought that oil painting was typically a Western art form. It is now believed to have originated in Europe, where the earliest examples date to the early 12th century.

The Bamiyan Valley, well-known for its 1,500-year-old massive Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, features several cave murals of Buddhist images. Damaged by the harsh natural environment and the Taliban dynamite, these cave paintings have been restored and studied by the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo. In an attempt to understand the constituent materials and painting techniques, the analysis exposed oily and resinous components in a group of wall paintings. They were created with oil painting technique, conceivably using walnut and poppy seed drying oils. They also illustrate multi-layered structure as in canvas paintings of the Medieval period. The layers were prepared with natural resins, proteins, gums, oil-based paint layers, and, in some cases, a resinous, varnish-like layer.

“It is amazing how the ancient people knew the nature of  materials well, such as protein, gum, resin, oil, pigments and dyes, and also how to prepare and combine them effectively,” Hidemi Otake, a painting conservator at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties of Japan, reflected. Countless murals of the Bamiyan Valley caves featured various painting materials and techniques that had been used through the ages. “Some caves have rough wall surfaces and matte finishes, and others have very smooth surfaces, and some have a transparency and shininess. Some paintings have glaze-like layers on top of paint,” Otake said. Having been painted in the mid-7th century, the murals have varying artistic influences and exhibit scenes with knotty-haired Buddhas in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged in the midst of palm leaves and mythical creatures. More than likely, the paintings are the work of artists who journeyed on the Silk Road across Central Asia’s desert to the West.

The Art of Navajo Weaving

The desert Southwest with its magnificent landscape of canyons, buttes, and mesas was then and is now a great influence on the brilliant weavings created by the Navajo dwellers of this wonderful region. Navajo weavings were one of the first Native American arts to be traded far and wide, cherished for their incredible beauty and fine craftsmanship. This art continues into the world of today.

Among the tribes of the American Southwest, weaving began with the Pueblo Indians who used upright looms to weave natural cotton into fabric. It wasn’t until after the Spanish arrived bringing horses, cattle, and sheep, did weaving become important among the Navajos. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led to the westward journey of some Pueblo into Navajo lands. It is believed that during this time the Navajo learned weaving from the Pueblo men. However it was the Navajo women, not the men, who took up the art of weaving. Their skills flourished, and within two generations the Spanish were remarking on the superiority of Navajo textiles. During the early period of Navajo weaving many of the products were made into clothing for the Navajos themselves, but a large amount was sold or traded to the Spanish as well as to other Indian tribes. By mid-1800s, Navajo trade blankets were valued by chiefs of many Plains tribes, and weaving was done primarily for export rather than for domestic use. With the arrival of the reservation traders between 1870-1880, came a change in the appearance of Navajo weaving, the consequence of textiles being made solely for income. The traders not only encouraged Navajo weavers to produce higher quality weaving, but they commissioned distinctive weaving patterns that became common among local weavers, and today are associated with different areas of the reservation.

Two Gray Hills is the best known of the weaving styles. Genuine Two Grey Hills rugs are woven of natural, undyed, handspun wool in whites, blacks, and browns. Weavers produce subtle shades of these basic hues by carding together various colored wools. Because of the considerable time and effort required to prepare the wool for this style, weavings using these yarns may cost twice as much as those made from commercial yarns. Similar to other styles with borders, many Two Grey Hills rugs have a spirit line or spirit trail – a tiny row of yarn that runs from the background color through all the border colors to the edge of the rug. This spirit line is meant to release the weaver’s creative energies from the rug back to the Universe so that a weaver’s spirit will not be trapped within the completed rug. The tradition came about because non-Navajo traders, unaware of the taboo, asked weavers for borders. The weavers felt obligated, but avoided misfortune by putting in the spirit line.

According to Navajo myth, the Dine, or the People, were led to the Southwest from the underworld by the Holy People. Spider Man taught the Navajos how to make a loom from sunshine, lightning, and rain. Spider Woman taught them to weave. Anthropologists say that the Navajo migrated south from Canada into New Mexico sometime before 1400. From the Spanish settlers the Navajo acquired churro sheep, noted for their long, fine, lustrous wool. With weaving techniques adopted from the Pueblo people, a traditional Navajo rug is woven on an upright loom with no mechanical parts. 

Out of my admiration for the artistic skills of the Navajo weavers and my desire to be well-rounded creatively, I took a weaving class. Working on a table loom, not an upright, and using store-bought wool, not handspun, my respect for the Navajo artists flourished. At times frustrating and tedious, the feel of the yarn and sense of designing brought peace & harmony to my soul. I am quite pleased with the shawl I wove, adding my own spirit line.

(Photos from top: Navajo Double Saddle Blanket, circa 1920s; Francesca's weaving; Navajo Pictorial weaving, circa 1980s.)

Art in the Woods

Many artists of today are leaving urban centers for more invigorating and inspirational smaller towns. Some of these special settings where art play a big part are...

• Santa Fe, New Mexico, where over 200 galleries can be found in a corner of the high desert Southwest.
• Hot Springs, Arkansas, sits inside a national park, and the town processes a strong ethic of historic preservation.
• Marfa, Texas, is a small ranching town in the Big Bend region artistically revitalized in the early 1980s.
• Traverse City, Michigan, a waterfront community on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, prides itself in a wonderful, high quality of life with 30 wineries along the peninsula.
• Naples, Florida, is a wonderful place with an immense arts infrastructure.
• Chico, California, home to numerous skilled creative types, is a little town located in the north end of the Sacramento Valley.

As for me, I wished for rural & forested terrain and became overwhelmed by a beautifully landscaped artistic valley in the foothills of the North Cascade Mountains in Washington State. My husband (who happens to be a writer), our two border collies (outdoor enthusiasts & nature lovers), and myself (an artist) could not be living a happier existence.  

An Art Safari

In september 2007, I experienced the most inspired travel both artistically and emotionally, an art safari to the continent of Africa. Myself and five other artists (all of whom were “lovely” Brits, but an adventure of its own for a lone American), ventured to malawi and zambia for 15 days of sketching, water-colour painting, photographing, and exploring the landscape and animals. I never imagined in my wildest dreams the wonder, peacefulness, and charm of Africa.

This trip was conceived from multiple thoughts & desires. Travelling to Africa has always been of interest to me and now that painting has come back to life inside me, I want to explore all the characteristics of art medium. Drawing (sketching) seems to be the basis of all artwork, something for which I have never felt real confident in, and water-colour is a difficult medium to work with for you can not correct a mistaken brush stroke.

Our accommodations were in camps and out in the bush of Liownde National Park, Lake Malawi, and South Luangwa National Park, which provided us with an outstanding & diverse landscape and wildlife experience. Daily activities included early morning walks, day & night game drives, and a little late afternoon time to ourselves for reflecting. the landscapes at dawn & dusk were luminous and the animals were mesmerizing.

Being my first time in Africa, a world dancing with moments of splendor, it was quite difficult to put down the camera and take my eyes off the wonder long enough to sketch anything. juggling a camera, sketchbook & pencil or paper, watercolours & brush, was an art skill which I slowly learned. The key was to make quick sketch studies with charcoal pencil then go back later filling in with paint or colored pencil.

Making notes by your sketches as to references of knowledge about the animal, flora, or fauna on the page was a way to turn your sketchbook into a journal or diary of your adventure.

I can’t begin to express how this incredible experience enhanced my heart with creativity and passion. Mary-Anne, our art teacher and guide, explained it best to me in that the purpose of her art safaris was to help us with “the continuation of our journey.”

Visiting Legendary Landscapes

A trip to France would be exciting on its own, but to visit landscape sights of two of my favorite Impressionists would be awe inspiring.

Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet were impressionistic contemporaries who shared a common love for painting flowers and landscapes. They even chose the same countryside, outside of Paris, to enhance their talent and produce masterpieces of artwork.

Van Gogh was drawn to the village of Auvers-Sur-Oise. While in town for only two short months before his death, he painted wildly and quickly, capturing 80 oil paintings on canvas. The Church at Auvers appears often in his works. Monet spent his last four decades living at a huge farmhouse with an elaborate garden in Giverny. From the garden for which he considered one of his greatest works of art, came Monet’s most famous water-lily series.

Africa Art Safari

I can’t believe I’m actually going to Africa. And on an art safari!

It all came to light when, after the seventh year of Ken’s annual guy’s ski trip, I felt it was time for me to have a girl adventure trip. I began searching the internet for volunteer vacations around the world and came across the Art Safari website. What better adventure to treat myself to for enhancing my drawing skills, indulging in my love of animals, and nurturing my fascination with Africa.

Art Safari is the creation of Mary-Anne Bartlett, an English watercolorist and seasoned traveler. For fifteen days, a small group of no more than eight (including Mary-Anne and our guide) will visit Malawi and Zambia following the footsteps of Mary-Anne’s great-great-grandfather Sir John Kirk, who explored much of the area with Dr. Livingstone in the 1850-1860’s. During our expedition, we will be exploring our artistic talent as we draw and paint the landscapes, wildlife, and people along the way.

The Cat (In The Hat) Turns 50

Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, began his career in advertising before turning to writing children’s books. His whimsical and imaginative artwork was the perfect accessory for his narrative poems which so captured the playful mind of a child.

“The Cat in the Hat” was a year-and-a-half labor of love, which was finally published in 1957. Being born in 1951, I just missed growing up to the genius of Dr. Seuss books. Thank goodness, my inner child has not deprived me from being enchanted with Seuss classics as an adult. In fact, Dr. Seuss has been an inspiration in my dabbling in writing and illustrating children’s books.

How Art Can Change Your Life

I recently read an interesting article in the AARP Bulletin (yes, I know...) about a “hard-charging” Washington attorney “turning inward” and changing careers to become a pottery artist. At age 57, Willie Leftwich was diagnosed with colon cancer. More than a year of time passing –with surgery and incapacitating chemotherapy – allowed him plentiful moments to contemplate what really mattered in his life. Once cancer-free, he decided to quit the firm he had founded and started looking in new directions for “a path that would give him deeper satisfaction.”

A friend recommended pottery. He soon took classes, attended workshops, and made special friends with other potters. Working on the wheel and learning to fire a kiln gave him more pleasure than anything he had ever experienced before. He has attributed this process to saving his life.

“I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Had it not been for cancer, I probably wouldn’t have become a potter and experienced the same satisfaction and meaning in life that I’ve found working in clay.”

Art News & Ideas

I've begun writing an occasional blog, An Artist's Conversations, that contains some of my thoughts about art and an artist's life.