Andy Goldsworthy | The Direction of Intention

The Origin [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on October 21, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Fire is the origin of stone. By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.” ~ Andy Goldsworthy

We journeyed to her place of origin. Circumstance rather than intention took her home.

We retraced the steps she took as a child. We sat at the spot in the harbor where she once wrote poetry and lyrics for songs. We retraced the streets and avenues where she once drove in her ’71 VW Beetle. We ate baked clams. We visited the beach that lives on as one of her sacred places. She told me stories of her life. Before.

After walking the beach, after gathering rocks and shells, we sat on a weathered bench and listened. We felt the power of the place. The tide was coming in. The gulls flew high and dropped clams, attempting to crack them open. The warmth of the fall day was tempered by the cool wind off the sound.

My job was to hold the silence.

She was communing – not only with this sacred place – the origin – but with the young girl who rode her bike to this beach half a century ago. She walked to the water’s edge looking for that girl. She reached back in time and held out her hand. The young girl, unsure of what the future might hold, cautiously opened her hand and accepted the offer.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE BENCH

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Filed under: Identity, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, communing, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, home, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, origin, origin story, past, Sacred, sacred place, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Look To Nature [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on February 8, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Like waves frozen in time, the tall grasses have taken on the persona of an angry sea. We’ve stood in wonder at the whipping wind sending wavelike ripples across a field of wheat; this is not that. These waves are motionless.

They are worthy of Andy Goldsworthy. If they stretched for miles and miles I’d be certain they came from the mind of Christo. Yet no human hand or mind is at work here. Nature mimics herself in these grasses. They merit our awe and attention.

Along our trail there are several nests visible. Sparrows and swallows and hornets. I cannot imagine creating something so delicate and intricate. I have opposable thumbs so would be working with more than a beak yet I doubt I could craft such a miracle. It’s taken a lifetime for me to see beyond the word “nest” and see – really see – these fabulous sculptures made of grass, sticks, and mud.

Admiring the rolling grasses as Kerri kneels to snap her photograph, E.O. Wilson slips smiling into my mind and repeats: “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.”

Yes. I remember.

from my long-ago unfinished project: Kichom and Fucci. An illustration study for a story told by Kichom Hayashi

visit my online gallery

read Kerri’s blogpost about ROLLING GRASSES

like. support. share. comment. thank you.

buymeacoffee is what you make of it. nothing more. nothing less.

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Gratitude, Seeing | Tagged: aesthetics, Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, Christo, cognitive, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, EO Wilson, hornet, imagination, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, miracles, nature, nests, sculpture, sparrow, spiritual, stick bug, story, studio melange, swallow, the melange | Leave a comment »

Discover The Miracle [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on November 14, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

The wide strip dividing the parking areas hosted a vast colony of Shaggy Mane mushrooms. From a distance they looked like an epic creation of Andy Goldsworthy. There were so many, made stark white in the sun, that they begged a closer look. “What is that?” she asked. I had no idea.

We’ve all seen pop-up memorials, a sea of markers or flags placed in a field to represent the number of people lost. From far away the colony appeared to be one of those. Human made. A tiny-yet-vast shrine. A passing car stopped abruptly. The driver jumped out with his camera. We were not alone in our curiosity.

They did not come into focus until we were right on top of them. “Mushrooms” she gasped and reached for her camera. My head spun. Not human but nature made! The shock of realization made me laugh. I was almost relieved that, in these times, we’d discovered a miracle of abundant life and not a memorial to unimaginable loss.

The thought gave me pause.

I turned to face the sun and closed my eyes. I listened to the rustling leaves and her care-full excitement at capturing images without damaging the colony. I smelled the crisp air and wished to be nowhere else. Miracles of abundant life.

read Kerri’s blogpost about MUSHROOMS

like. share. support. comment. face the sun. smell the crisp air.

buymeacoffee is a shock of realization capable of making your head spin and support the continued work of the artists that remind you to stop and smell the roses.

Filed under: Gratitude, Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: abundance, abundant life, Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, bloggers, composer, curiosity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, loss, memorials, miracle, miracles, mushrooms, painter, photographer, presence, present, realization, shaggy mane mushrooms, shrine, story, studio melange, the melange, two artists, writers | 2 Comments »

Ask The Same Questions [on DR Thursday]

Posted on March 30, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

Their call is ancient and beautiful. I imagine their unique voice reaches back to the pterodactyl. Sandhill cranes. We live on their migration path. Each spring they stop for a rest, passing through, heading north. The Des Plaines river, surrounded by abundant farm fields, provide ample road snacks and safe places for respite.

Last fall, during the southern migration, a crane couple took up residence in a cornfield we pass en route to our trail. They stayed so long that they became a fixture. We expected to see them. Statuesque, always together, I wondered if they were as excited to see us as we were of seeing them. “There they are!” the cranes point to our little black toaster car. “Those two are always together,” they observe. “I wonder where they are headed?”

We make the same observations and ask the same questions of them.

When we first saw their tracks in the snow it felt like a gift, like seeing two hawks circling or several deer peeking from the willows. Their prints were huge, almost too big to be real. They were so distinct that they reminded me of something Andy Goldsworthy might create. Patterns in the snow. Marks mysteriously etched across the landscape.

Were it stone instead of snow, white quartzite, these amazing marks would be petroglyphs. Abraded to leave us a message, a symbol whose meaning was lost in time but inspire speculation none-the-less. “Where did they come from,” we ask, knowing there is no answer but we have to ask anyway.

Our footprints cross theirs on the path. Brad does a masterful crane-walk-imitation. We laugh as man becomes bird, eyes intense. The original theatrical impulse. I look back at the our prints crossing the crane’s and marvel at the image. This startling canvas will certainly melt. Another reminder of Andy Goldsworthy. The power of impermanence, like a sacred sand painting, a spirit captured for a brief moment, witnessed, evoking power, and then disappearing into sun and wind and time.

Canopy, 48x48IN, acrylic

read Kerri’s blogpost about CRANES

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Pattern, Seeing | Tagged: Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, elemental, elements, evocation, impermanence, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, migration, pattern, petroglyph, sand painting, sandhill crane, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange | 1 Comment »

Speak Back To It [on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on September 20, 2022 by davidrobinsoncreative

Noguchi might have designed this unintentional sculpture. A massive stone made delicate, the smaller carrying the weight of the greater. The shapes are not precise; they tend. As a final touch, the piece is set at water’s edge. Elemental commentary, a sculpture exposing the meeting of forces.

My favorite part: no one intended it. Yet, had Noguchi or Andy Goldsworthy walked by, they would have made flowing sketches, taken photographs, and rushed away to make it their own. Nature inspires. A happy accident. I suspect all great art comes into being this way.

Kerri often talks about placing her piano on a seashore or atop a mountain. Composing by responding to what nature presents. The sound of wind through trees, the pull of water rushing away from the beach. Once, she sat at her piano with a stack of image-phrases. She pulled one from the stack, closed her eyes, and played. I was a most happy witness to the wonders of creation.

Yesterday, for the first time in months, I pulled out my sketchbook and drew. The previous day, we visited the Botanic Gardens and I took dozens of photographs. The patterns and shapes of leaves. Startling color. I drew the shapes. I sketched the patterns. No expectation save the movement of hand and pencil. I felt as if I was blowing the dust out of my system. The patterns moved me.

The best news for any artist? We will never match the power and majesty that we find in nature as we reach to discover and express our own nature. The best we can do is draw from it, play in it, speak back to it, simply saying, “Thank you for the inspiration.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about ROCKS

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, composition, creation, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nature, nature and art, Noguchi, pattern, patterns in nature, piano composition, rejuvenation, responding, shape, shapes in nature, sketchbook, sketching, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Visit [on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on March 17, 2020 by davidrobinsoncreative

birch in winter copy

All this week I’ve been lost in memories of childhood. Nothing indoors, my remembering is outside. Running through fields. Aspen trees. The sound of snow. The smells of coming spring in Colorado. The intense blue sky. Standing against a brick wall, face to the sun to drink in the warmth on cold day. These memories are more sensual than story. It’s as if, this week, I need to remember the feeling of being a child.

I’ve always loved to draw and paint. I’d spend hours drawing eyes and faces. I drew portraits of Colonel Sanders from the empty chicken bucket. I spent hours inside of National Geographic magazine drawing the figures I found there. I drew again and again and again a cabin in the woods that lived only in my imagination. I knew the place the first time I scribbled it on paper. There was a period of time in my mid-life that I thought I might someday happen across the cabin-of-my-imagination. I forgot the feeling of being happily lost inside the world of my imagination. This week, I remember.

Up north, walking on a frozen lake to see the eagle’s nest, we passed this stand of birch trees. Andy Goldsworthy could not have placed them better. White and fragile against the forest, they glowed in the afternoon sun. They shocked me into presence. I was surrounded with people I love, the sun was warm on my face, the creaking of the ice, the smell of pine, Kerri’s delight. “Remember this feeling,” I told myself. Remember this moment. Someday, after you’ve long forgotten this day, you will reach back and be thankful to have this place in memory, this feeling, to visit again.

read Kerri’s blog post about BIRCH TREES

Filed under: Art, Awakening, Gratitude, Seeing, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: Andy Goldsworthy, artistry, childhood, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, feeling, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, memory, remembering, senses, sensual, the melange | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on March 15, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

thoughts from the melange to give lift to your thursday

THISquarterearth interrupted I sharpened copy

this is a morsel of the painting Earth Interrupted I. Kerri calls this morsel Quarter Earth

I’d completely forgotten about this painting. It is so utterly different from everything else I’ve ever done that after I painted it I rolled it and never showed it. In truth, it was an experiment, something I didn’t at all take seriously. At the time, I was discontent with my paintings. I was bored and uninspired. I’ve worked long enough to recognize that my discontent signals an empty tank, a need to rejuvenate. Rest and refill the creative tank.

Earlier in my artistic life, these periods of emptiness caused me to panic. What if that’s it? What if I’ve lost my muse? What if my creative well is permanently run dry? In my panic I’d try and force things to happen, which you can imagine, served only to magnify my empty-discontents. There’s nothing like a good panic, a deep investment in creative-lack-theory, to generate a serious case of artist block. It took me a while to learn that I run in cycles, just like the seasons, that my creative spring ebbs and flows. Blocks are not necessary.

Now, when I hit one of ‘winter’ phases, in addition to taking it easy, I’ve learned the best thing to do is play. Experiment. Loosen the grip, spin the dials, re-open the eyes. Leave the studio and pretend I’m Andy Goldsworthy, stack rocks, arrange leaves, take walks and photograph random textures. Make snowmen. Scribble with crayons.

The morsel for today’s melange is an ancient map of my long-ago play. Paper sacks and paint and palette knife scribbles. I usually throw these things away or paint over them. But, this painting, so utterly different, created so many years ago, must have whispered, “Wait. Just put me aside and wait. I have something for a future you.” I’m so glad I listened. At this very moment, drying in the studio, is Earth Interrupted II. Earth Interrupted III is on the easel and already Earth Interrupted IV is calling me.