Before the movie
1 How did you first come to see this movie?
I saw this movie in the theater. I picked this movie to watch because smo was over and I wanted to watch something that wasn’t sad. Also, we saw one of the pieces Andy Goldsworthy makes in this documentary when we went to the Storm King sculpture park.
2 What makes it a movie worth owning?
a.) it is beautiful, b.) it is about art in nature, c.) it is one of those movies that you can either watch intensely or just have on in the background.
3 What are your favorite parts?
Andy Goldsworthy uses natural elements to make his art and lets nature take its course over them. His ice sculptures melt and his stone cairns are drowned. The wind carries away snow and leaves and the river washes out his natural pigment. He spends hours meticulously forming perfect images, only to have them be transformed into something else. And that is the nature of his art. He doesn’t view it as destruction because he does not own the art pieces. He enters into a dialogue where he shapes something, he puts his will upon the terrain and then lets the terrain continue on without him. He also documents his work with photographs, so at least there is some commemoration of his work that we as absent viewers can experience. / The very last scene where he throws handfuls of snow, almost childlike, and creates phantoms.
4 What do you relate to in the movie?
I like the cyclical nature of his art, his philosophy and the poetry of his explanations. His pictures always struck me when I would see them in books, but watching him at work is different. And then seeing his art in person is yet another dimension. When I went to Storm King, I didn’t feel it was wrong to take one of the stones from his rock wall. I was acting like the tide or wind. I was incorporating myself, adding myself by subtracting the rock. I think he would approve.
5 Who is your favorite character and why?
The river, obviously. No, the tide. Just kidding, it’s actually the river.
6 How did this movie make you feel?
Contemplative, integrated, peaceful, inspired. When smo and I put the movie in, I cued it up and the first image appeared on the screen. It was a solitary rock cairn in a desolate, snowy landscape. I paused it as we settled ourselves in, and then we continued to not watch any of the movie.
1 How did you first come to see this movie?
I saw this movie in the theater. I picked this movie to watch because smo was over and I wanted to watch something that wasn’t sad. Also, we saw one of the pieces Andy Goldsworthy makes in this documentary when we went to the Storm King sculpture park.
2 What makes it a movie worth owning?
a.) it is beautiful, b.) it is about art in nature, c.) it is one of those movies that you can either watch intensely or just have on in the background.
3 What are your favorite parts?
Andy Goldsworthy uses natural elements to make his art and lets nature take its course over them. His ice sculptures melt and his stone cairns are drowned. The wind carries away snow and leaves and the river washes out his natural pigment. He spends hours meticulously forming perfect images, only to have them be transformed into something else. And that is the nature of his art. He doesn’t view it as destruction because he does not own the art pieces. He enters into a dialogue where he shapes something, he puts his will upon the terrain and then lets the terrain continue on without him. He also documents his work with photographs, so at least there is some commemoration of his work that we as absent viewers can experience. / The very last scene where he throws handfuls of snow, almost childlike, and creates phantoms.
4 What do you relate to in the movie?
I like the cyclical nature of his art, his philosophy and the poetry of his explanations. His pictures always struck me when I would see them in books, but watching him at work is different. And then seeing his art in person is yet another dimension. When I went to Storm King, I didn’t feel it was wrong to take one of the stones from his rock wall. I was acting like the tide or wind. I was incorporating myself, adding myself by subtracting the rock. I think he would approve.
5 Who is your favorite character and why?
The river, obviously. No, the tide. Just kidding, it’s actually the river.
6 How did this movie make you feel?
Contemplative, integrated, peaceful, inspired. When smo and I put the movie in, I cued it up and the first image appeared on the screen. It was a solitary rock cairn in a desolate, snowy landscape. I paused it as we settled ourselves in, and then we continued to not watch any of the movie.
After the movie
1 How accurate were your memories of this movie?
Pretty accurate. I’ve probably seen this movie six or seven times now.
2 How much had you forgotten?
Nothing, really. Memory is like the tide. It takes away and brings back. At times, when you are not thinking about it, it is gone forever, seemingly. But then some small thing might trigger the memory, and it will come flooding back.
3 Do you still like this movie?
Yes.
4 Did you have any new feelings or experiences?
The connection to Pi, with its patterns and circles.
5 What is the take-away?
Life is a circle. We are inhabitants on an Earth that doesn’t need us, we need it. There are cycles and time inevitably moves forward. This isn’t an environmental movie, but it shows the connection to the earth and the way in which all things are connected from birth to death, change and growth. “The real work is the change.”
6 How do you think watching the movie impacted/ will impact your future actions if at all?
I think it always inspires me to make things, which is something I’m not very good at. But what AG is good at is taking painstaking effort to make things appear effortless. I like how he made needles from nature and paint from rocks. He had $0 overhead because he found everything right where he made his art.
1 How accurate were your memories of this movie?
Pretty accurate. I’ve probably seen this movie six or seven times now.
2 How much had you forgotten?
Nothing, really. Memory is like the tide. It takes away and brings back. At times, when you are not thinking about it, it is gone forever, seemingly. But then some small thing might trigger the memory, and it will come flooding back.
3 Do you still like this movie?
Yes.
4 Did you have any new feelings or experiences?
The connection to Pi, with its patterns and circles.
5 What is the take-away?
Life is a circle. We are inhabitants on an Earth that doesn’t need us, we need it. There are cycles and time inevitably moves forward. This isn’t an environmental movie, but it shows the connection to the earth and the way in which all things are connected from birth to death, change and growth. “The real work is the change.”
6 How do you think watching the movie impacted/ will impact your future actions if at all?
I think it always inspires me to make things, which is something I’m not very good at. But what AG is good at is taking painstaking effort to make things appear effortless. I like how he made needles from nature and paint from rocks. He had $0 overhead because he found everything right where he made his art.