arts and photography

A truly beautiful book, with rich photographs and nice summaries. Inspiring to the last page - and particularly useful for igniting one's creative juices. A small note to the Amazon reviewer: Andy Goldsworthy was born in England in 1956. He lives in Penpont, Scotland, but is English - not Scottish.

In "Stone," as in his other books, Andy Goldsworthy takes the natural play of a child--fooling around with sticks, leaves, water, stones, mud, and more--and elevates it to something above and beyond its natural status. He uses his adult design skills to create great manmade beauty from existing natural beauty. He never falls over the line into obvious, coy, or precious art--he simply lets nature be what it is with a tiny little bit of rearranging on his part.

The results are never short of astonishing. Witness the sharp-edged rocks against which Goldsworthy has "glued" (with plain water) the leaves of brilliantly red Japanese maples, thereby making the edges look almost bloodied (p. 76). Witness the delicate, calligraphic tracery Goldsworthy stitched up by pinning together rush after rush after rush with thorns and then hanging these on a gallery wall so that it appears that either Calder or Matisse have wandered in and scribbled elegantly on the walls (p. 83). Witness the balanced oval boulders Goldsworthy lays in a curvaceous line from beach to the sea, and see how they roll and disappear from view as the tide comes crashing in (p. 101). These are but three of the many visual astonishments Goldsworthy shares in this book. The book is a never-ending source of delight and admiration for the feverish workings of one of 20th-century art's most creative minds.

Andy Goldsworthy's art is so inspiring. In this book, the art pieces focus on, as the title says, stone. It's unbelievable. He just unveils so much magic in the world with his brilliant thinking. "Otherworldly" is surely the word to describe how much of the art in this book feels. I keep thinking it couldn't possibly be this planet, but I suppose it's not even a planet anymore; it's the mind of the artist. Time also plays a significant role in this art. He builds pieces with the intent to photograph it when the day moves & the light hits it a certain way. Or he builds things that the incoming tide tears apart. In a piece I love in this book, he gathered ice from a lake & put it on the shade side of a rock. The ice gradually melted & was shed. I wish I could have listened & watched. Something that adds so wonderfully to this book's beauty made from such simple natural materials is that he also accompanies photographs with very Haiku-like, very poetic, short descriptions of the art pieces & how they existed in time & in the act of his making them.