Found Art

This past year, I've noticed that a number of people visiting the Island have been inspired to create temporary art from found objects or objects from nature:

This piece features a metal hub washed ashore many years ago, with scavenged bits a metal inserted.

This is an ambitious structure near British Landing, it's nearly ten feet long - "Arch Rock West"? I can't wait to bike out and see if it survived the winter.

These two are more modest in scale, but still compelling:

I have to wonder if these artists were inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, an environmental sculptor who uses the natural world to create an art form. He explores and experiments with various natural material such as leaves, grasses, stones, wood, sand, clay, ice, and snow. The seasons and weather determine the materials and the subject matter of his projects. With no preconceived ideas about what he will create, Goldsworthy relies on what nature will give him. Goldsworthy "feels" the energy from nature and transcends that energy into an art form.

Because of this fleeting quality of nature, Goldsworthy uses photographs to document his work. "Each work grows, stays, decays- integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit."-Andy Goldsworthy.

I first became aware of his work when I watched the DVD "Rivers and Tides" - I highly recommend it!

I've been mulling over some ideas for creating my own work and look forward to discovering new pieces created by other visitors this season.