Sticks & Stones: 
Exploring the Art of Nature and the Nature of Art

This here is a project I did with a group of five year olds at a school where I used to work.  Below you will find an overview of the project as well as individual artist statements.
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"I took pictures of stones and feathers by themselves to see what they were like in the picture. Then I made a bird’s nest. I didn’t want to use the stuff that birds use though. I think I used stones and feathers because they’re interesting. Stones and feathers are opposites. I just love total opposites." -A
Each page I attempted to turn was met with the protest, "Wait, I wasn't done looking at it!"  Most adults who have looked through books with a group of young children know this is unusual.  Their hands are often all too eager to take hold of the book, impatient to turn the thin sheets, to discover the next image, the next thought.  Yet as these children pored over each page of Andy Goldsworthy's art book, "Stone," they let out a collective "Whoa," and pointed out each detail as they shared their ideas about this mysterious artist and the even more mysterious forces of nature in his art.  

You can find Goldsworthy's online catalogue at http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/  

Contemplating Goldsworthy's egg-like sphere made of stacked stones, Owen remarked, "Andy Goldsworthy must be really strong."  "Well, it’s the stones that are strong," Noah replied.  They were clearly impressed, and repeatedly questioned me, “How does he do that?!"  
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"First I thought about it and I noticed it looked really pretty in my brain. I wanted to make a river with a mountain on the top. The jewel in the middle is like a cemetery for all the dead bugs." -S
I suggested that we find out about his process by experiencing our own.  We read several other books about this man and his work, and on a rainy day set up a projector in our classroom and enjoyed "Rivers and Tides," a documentary of his process.  As interest spread, children and teachers began introducing more natural items into the classroom for building, and children revisited this work daily, making sketches of potential projects and gathering the necessary materials.  Some attempted to replicate Goldsworthy, others explored more original avenues.  
To deepen their thinking and to help bridge the gap between abstract planning and their concrete constructions, children were asked to consider many variables.  The ideal weather, the position of the sun and the resulting shadows, and the background were often discussed before shooting.  Children were also guided in the picture-taking process.  Almost all the pictures of art in this book were taken by the artist and all of them were taken on site at Little Owl Preschool in Long Beach, California.  These astonishing and at times unbelievably masterful photographs are not simply products of an activity, but rather an exposition of the personal nature of sculpture and photography, a deeply spiritual and reverent process for these artists. 
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"I don't want to say anything." -J
Children were at first protective of their art, wanting their pieces to remain untouched, but their attempts at preserving their artwork from the happy hands of children coming outside to play proved futile.  We revisited "Rivers and Tides," discussing how Andy Goldsworthy lets natural forces - seas, winds, rain - destroy his works, the destruction of his art becoming part of the art - a live element that speaks to the nature of nature itself.  Children decided that they, too would let natural forces destroy their projects - in this instance, the children themselves being the natural force.  After all, what embodies creation and destruction more than children?  What is more like the rising tide than the swell of a child's energy when coming outside to play- more destructive than their stomping feet crashing upon the sand? 
Perhaps the most profound idea to be gleaned from this body of work is the aspects of nature that caught each child's artistic eye.  Texture - this is what attracted children.  We live in a culture where so much of what is offered for children to play with is synthetic - over-stimulating in it's visual aspects, but under-stimulating to all other senses.  And yet, all around us, nature provides wonderful tools for building, working, and playing, encouraging the youngest to the oldest of us to work with nature, rather than against it.  Our classroom was a testament to the saying "Nature has so much to teach us" for it brought us collectively and individually to mental and physical places previously unthought of: the meditative state one finds themselves in when trying to balance stones, the focused state of surveying and troubleshooting why the stones fell, the lesson in grace one is taught when handling heavy things in a delicate manner.  There is something about nature that regardless of age helps us tap into our most innate self and brings us to a peaceful place.  By studying the works of Goldsworthy, we learned how nature works in closed loops, and that the destruction of one thing only means the creation of something else. 

These words and the words and photographs that follow them are a testament to what happened, a process I feel blessed to be part of.  I will leave you with this:
Adults love the spontaneity of children, living purely in the now, but often only when it is convenient. They try to control it, because they know they can.  Likewise, they love the spontaneity of nature, its impermanence, its lack of code or predictability, and do not try to control it, because they know they cannot.
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"I was trying to make a house for nature. The kids destroyed it and I was okay with it because that’s what Andy Goldsworthy does. It feels good to him to have the ocean destroy his art. The kids are like the ocean." -A