Andy Goldsworthy: Noticing Nature

Installation, by Andy Goldsworthy

(by a group of 2 kindergartners)

About the Artist: Andy Goldsworthy is a contemporary installation artist who lives in Scotland. Before going to art school he spent time working on a farm in England, and grew to feel that farming was a way of literally shaping the earth, just like artists shape clay. His career has been an elaboration of this idea: he has created a body of work full of pieces both transient and permanent, using nature as his medium. Here's a 3 minute video of him working on youtube... could be really fun for the kids to see (actually, youtube has TONS of these on Goldsworthy, so if you have some time, you might want to check out more of them). here is the slideshow.

Andy Goldsworthy is a great artist to discuss because his work gives us an opportunity to talk about one of the most important skills an artist can have: the ability to notice the world.

Supplies: a camera, a bunch of natural things (I used: white beans, split peas, berries off an ash tree, sticks, little nests, sunflower seeds, and figs because that's what I found/had- but you could use whatever). For prep work, gather your supplies and divide them into containers. You'll be splitting the kids into small groups of 2 or 3, so make enough for each group (I used paper lunch bags to hold the supplies, and filled 11 bags).

Discussion: I had the kids close their eyes and think about things that are beautiful to them in nature. Answers included an acorn, a pet cat with only one eye, and flowers. We talked about what it was about those things that made them beautiful. The acorn, for instance, was little (size). The cat was soft (texture) and imperfect (imperfect things are often more special than perfect ones). The flowers were purple (colors). Then, we talked about how nature makes all kinds of patterns - giraffes, zebras, rows of leaves on a branch, etc. Pull up the slideshow, and after using our discussion questions - What do you see? What more can you find? What makes you say that? - see if you can ask the kids to identify some of the elements of art they came up with initially (size, color, texture, pattern) in the Goldworthy installations.

Andy Goldsworthy, Elder Leaves, 1983

Activity: We went outside the classroom on a patch of cement, and I gave the paper bags with supplies to each small group with instructions to make a design that was interesting and beautiful to them. We talked about maybe incorporating patterns (ABABAB, ABBAABBA) and noticing how the different colors look next to each other.

(These guys above focused on making patterns inside the nest, look closely. For the photograph, which is part of the art, they thought it would look neat to have all their hands shown.)

(This group used sticks to frame their nest, and then made piles by color around the nest. The diagonal stick across was a deliberate choice.)

The last part - I took pictures of all the "installations." (Practical tip: I also made sure to get one picture of each with a piece of paper with names of group members so I can get copies of the pictures into the right portfolios. I would totally forget!)