Andy Goldsworthy Quotes & Sayings

“My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made.”

“As with all my work, whether it's a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I'm trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.”

“Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.”

“Photography is a way of putting distance between myself and the work which sometimes helps me to see more clearly what it is that I have made.”

“A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.”

“People also leave presence in a place even when they are no longer there.”

“Not being able to touch is sometimes as interesting as being able to touch.”

“The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.”

“I'm cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames.”

“Occasionally I have come across a last patch of snow on top of a mountain in late May or June. There's something very powerful about finding snow in summer.”