Saturday, November 1, 2014

Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

Last week I was able to speak with most classes at Dyer about environmental land artist Andy Goldsworthy, in preparation for our school-wide field trip to Bradbury Mountain.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist, born in 1956, who currently lives in Scotland. He creates site-specific outdoor sculptures using the natural materials found around him. Artworks like these are sometimes called "earthworks".

Classes were able to watch the first 10 minutes of the documentary Rivers and Tides, which follows Andy Goldsworthy as he creates many of his sculptures.

Afterwards, students worked in small groups to collaboratively create sculptures using only the seashells, rocks, sand dollars, and leaves provided on their tables. The results were stunning! Here are a couple examples from each grade level.  Click here to see our Artsonia gallery of all of the groups' artworks.

5th Grade

5th Grade

4th Grade

3rd Grade

2nd Grade

1st Grade

Kindergarten

Andy Goldsworthy

Students watched Andy Goldsworthy making this sculpture in the 10 minute clip of Rivers and Tides


When the school went to Bradbury Mountain on October 30th. Students participated in a Specialist Relay Race, which combined challenges for Phys Ed, Art, and Music.  The art portion required students to select a natural material (leaves, sticks, acorns, gathered from the site) and add it to a collaborative artwork inside a hula hoop. They were challenged to "think like Andy Goldsworthy".

The students had a lot of fun with this, however the race factor definitely hindered the amount of thought that students wanted to put into choosing where their natural object should be placed!
The lesson that we learned: Racing is fun. Making nature art is fun. But making good nature art requires time and thought!





Made by Mrs. Burman after the busses were loaded!