Andy Goldsworthy

Browsing through Goldsworthy’s works, I noticed that not only does he draw his inspiration and use material from nature and the environment from around him, but that he favors spiral or circular patterns/shapes. I think there’s a certain beauty to his works because he doesn’t use man-made materials such as paints and plastics. Also by doing this, he’s driving the modern idea of conservation and “going green” forward in a way that the Junk artists never could- with biodegradable materials. This would be based off of the natural form of fractals, in which nature naturally has her creations grow in a branching, circular form, one in which the main stalk of the organism separates into smaller and smaller parts, like body into arms/legs into fingers/toes. Goldsworthy’s artwork mirrors this in the sense that the central parts of his works ‘branch out’ into smaller forms, and makes the center the focus of attention. He also places natural art forms and structures as public art in unnatural places, i.e. the cities and museums, but by doing so he brings nature and his art closer to us. His works not only use nature, but mirror them as well, showing the beauty of natural forms not made, but simply arranged by the hands of a man.