Andy Goldsworthy, nature architect

Sculpture in National Museum of Scotland by Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy, (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture andland art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works inScotland.

The son of F. Allin Goldsworthy (1929–2001), former professor of applied mathematics at the University of Leeds, Andy Goldsworthy was born inCheshire  and grew up on the Harrogate side of Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in a house edging the green belt. From the age of 13 he worked on farms as a labourer. He has likened the repetitive quality of farm tasks to the routine of making sculpture: "A lot of my work is like picking potatoes; you have to get into the rhythm of it."

Goldsworthy studied fine art at Bradford College of Art (1974–1975) and at Preston Polytechnic (1975–1978)  (now the University of Central Lancashire) in Preston, Lancashire, receiving his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from the latter

After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. In 1985, he moved to Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and a year later to Penpont. It has been said that his gradual drift northwards was "due to a way of life over which he did not have complete control", but that contributing factors were opportunities and desires to work in these areas and "reasons of economy"

In 1993, he received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford. He was an A.D. White Professor-At-Large in Sculpture at Cornell University 2000-2006 and 2006-2008.

Andy Goldsworthy is the subject of a 2001 documentary feature film called Rivers and Tides, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer.

Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, 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."

Goldsworthy produced a commissioned work for the entry courtyard of San Francisco's De Young Museum called "Drawn Stone", which echoes San Francisco's frequent earthquakes and their effects. His installation included a giant crack in the pavement that broke off into smaller cracks, and broken limestone, which could be used for benches. The smaller cracks were made with a hammer adding unpredictability to the work as he created it. Goldsworthy is represented by Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris.

Natural sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy.

"Andy Goldsworthy is an extraordinary, innovative British artist whose collaborations with nature produce uniquely personal and intense artworks. Using a seemingly endless range of natural materials—snow, ice, leaves, bark, rock, clay, stones, feathers petals, twigs—he creates outdoor sculpture that manifests, however fleeting, a sympathetic contact with the natural world. Before they disappear, or as they disappear, Goldsworthy, records his work in superb colour photographs."

What he is trying to bring out, he says, is something like the same quality that existed in the original trees. 'That effortlessness. A tree is so perfect in its profile but it is underwritten by this enormous daily struggle over years and decades. That is the energy I am aiming for.' G.N