Rivers and Tides

Recently a friend asked me to look up this documentary, Rivers and Tides, about Andy Goldsworthy. This artist creates extraordinary works of art out of scrapes and branches in nature. Over and over he creates a spectacle, and it all goes back to his relationship to the earth. This documentary is not only profound, but a must see for any and every artist. Even if you aren’t a self-proclaimed artist, it really digs deep into what you are creating in your life. Your work may be the way you mother, the career path you’ve carved, or something you are deeply passionate about.

And the beauty that Andy’s art teaches us is that no matter what season you are in (job loss, grief, hopelessness, transition…), wherever you find yourself, is the right place. For him, a tide might come and take a piece of art he’d been working on all day and sweep it out to sea. Or, the breeze in the air might blow the piece apart. He creates these pieces from what was never there, and explains that his art can represent what we work with everyday…the ebb and flow of trying something new, watching it not work, and yet still being with it instead of against it.

“I haven’t made the piece (a work of stone that is built high into a cone shape and took massive artistic ability to produce) to be destroyed by the sea…it’s been given to the sea as a gift, and the sea has taken the work and made of it more than I could ever have imagined for it.” -Andy Goldsworthy

I think we all have a “work” in life. Whether it’s art-work or a dream that woos us, there is something we are all deeply passionate about. And sometimes, the hardest lesson is watching that “work” be taken away from us. What Andy Goldsworthy has taught me is that my “work” will inevitably evolve (whether I like it or not). I must let the “currant” of life just do what it was intended to do as it evolves my “work”. It might expand it…it might destroy it…it might light it up…no matter what, my job is to trust, that where my work goes, is a gift.

What is your “work” in life?  Where does the “currant” of life have it right now? How can you work with it instead of against it?

I’d love to hear your comments…and will continue this conversation in the comment section.

Check out more work by Andy Goldsworthy!