Andrew Goldsworthy/Artist and Naturalist

Art of Andrew Goldsworthy

Andrew Goldsworthy is a unique and wonderful artist.  I am reminded in his work how often artist's have a  different vision and present the world to us with fresh eyes.  No matter how different you art is, you must believe in yourself.  I can imagine all the naysayers when Andy began his installations in nature. "They won't last!", "junk made of twigs and stones, how is that art?", "I could do that, take a bunch of snow and branches and call it art"....you can imagine the resistance he must have encountered.  His Father and Mother wishing he would go in to a more common sense occupation and a cousin snickering behind his back thinking to himself, "all he did in grammar school was play with sticks, see where that will get him!". People who do really visionary and new things are often ridiculed because they dare to think differently or envision something that has not existed before. But that is the world of an artist, to innovate, so in that world we must expect to meet resistance and to encounter naysayers and unbelievers.  This is the journey of the artist, part of the path we must walk.  Andy Goldsworthy walks it well, he has presented the world back to us in a way we have never seen it before...with incomparable beauty and if he is a partner with nature.  I dare say the same disbelievers now say, "Oh, I knew in kindergarten he would become a world famous artist!".  It is amazing how success makes everyone gather round and heap praise, where once they could not be found while the artist is finding his way.  But Andy believed in himself and his art...he persisted...so now we have books, installations, and museum exhibitions where there would have been none if Andy had listen to all the negative lingering out in the form of art critics, curators and bubble poppers.  Believe in yourself, believe in your art...that is Andy's message to us as artists.