You've just gotta Love Andy Goldsworthy's imagination and his drive. His ability to see prospects in the most mundane of objects and situations. And the sheer energy of the man. The meandering mud snake? /river? used on the cover is an example of both his imagination and his technology. As Andy explains.....many people think that two different clays were used for the piece but, actually, the "river" form was thicker clay and thus dried more slowly. I was especially fascinated by this piece because I actually completed my Master's thesis on cracking clays.....though, I think the sodic clays that I worked on would have cracked much more. Though there are some mathematical models somewhere that describe the tendency of clays as they dry and shrink to form a pattern or hexagons or pentagons (as I recall). Though I notice in Andy's case the blocks (peds) appear to be, roughly, four sided. I also admire the guy's energy and drive. Not easy to make a career out of wandering the world piling rocks and leaves and clay into patterns.....most of which are ephemeral and fade away. His ability to turn this activity into films, books, and exhibitions is remarkable.
I was particularly struck by his description of finding a striking patch of red sandstone near Jemez Springs which was a two hour drive from where he was working inn Santa Fe...yet he kept coming back here because of the colour and quality of the red stone.
And how can you make a sculpture with a bunch of sticks laid in different directions....but he does....brilliantly (p151/2). And how about "How to make a black hole (p184) ...again....brilliant but also showing that clever combination of technique and meticulous record keeping (via photos) ...plus his flair for publicity.
He wasn't the first of the outdoor "landscape artists", Smithson in 1970 with his spiral jetty on the shores of the Great Salt Lake was one of those paving the way and Richard Long was a contemporary of Goldsworthy ....doing similar work. Maybe one could also look back to Palaeolithic works and the mounds of the Mississippi Valley also.
Quite a lot of Andy's thinking and approach are revealed in the text. I liked this. It really humanises him. And the failures! Lots of them ....yet he picks himself up and soldiers on or he just makes the most of a situation. He says that he was making about 500 ephemeral works in 1977...most of which were failures. Maybe, there would be one good work per month. There are a couple of interesting lines on p180: "After being rejected by Leeds, Hull and Nottingham, Polytechnics, Goldsworthy is the last, but one, to be accepted for the BA Fine Arts Course at Preston Polytechnic Lancaster Annex, Lancashire". Hardly a glamorous start to an art career. Yet he has kind of made his own way...virtually creating an art form on his own.....though some acknowledgement must be given to Richard Long. (I'm not aware that they ever worked together).
I'm not sure what, exactly, is the appeal of Andy's art. And what makes one of his works a success and another a failure. But it's something to do with pattern...sometimes colour....sometimes the odd or unexpected. And, almost always, there is something of what the Japanese term "wabi sabi"....the beauty in nature of the slightly imperfect or not entirely symmetrical.
Something that comes through in the text but not in the pictures is the sheer physical effort that Andy puts in. He really does get "down and dirty" ..sometimes wet and freezing and often great physical and sustained effort is required to realise his works.
The book details something of the range of his imagination, embracing icicle and earth drawings ...where melting ice combines with earth to make a watercolour; arches made with stone, holes in a beach...washed away by the incoming tide; a pile of luminous maple leaves in Japan; sinusoid land and stand sculptures ....snaking along the ground; a screen of horse-chestnut stalks;.....his inventiveness seems to have no bounds.
I loved the book. Sorry that I couldn't see all the original works but maybe the photography can actually enhance them (with lighting and contrast etc.) Happy to give it five stars. ( )

Andy Goldsworthy is an amazing artist; Time is an absolutely appropriate title for this because all his creations disintegrate/blow away/float away/evaporate/melt with time. I love how Goldsworthy goes to a location, discovers materials on the scene, and attaches rocks, clay, sticks, and leaves together into gorgeous but extremely temporal images. All his creations are so connected to passing time, light, change, and nature.

The text is quite detailed concerning the process of creating his art, which may not be as interesting as the pictures for most of us, but it's fascinating and really helps clarify the relation to the passing of time and light.

The sort of art book you read and think about, and read again. ( )

Goldworthy's work is extremely interesting to me because of its use of natural materials and settings that make a implicit statement about the ephemeral nature of life and art. ( )

A fascinating man who alters nature for his art. We watched hiim build the mounds at the East Wing. This is the book from the National Gallery exhibition, but his film and other books show an amazing breadth of work, none of it lasting, except through film and photograpy. ( )