Home / Quotes / Quote by John Ciardi

Quote by John Ciardi

“Spontaneous is what you get after the seventeenth draft.”

Author

John Ciardi was an American poet born on June 24, 1916, and died on March 30, 1986. Known for his clear and direct style of poetry, he had a profound impact on 20th-century American poetry. more

“Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. The energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within. The weather--rain, sun, snow, hail, mist, calm--is that external space made visible. When I touch a rock, I am touching and working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings, and the way it sits tells how it came to be there.”

Way Made Important Form Energy Difficult Space Sun Rocks Materials Rain Independent Calm Snow Weather Visible Working It Touching Surroundings Mist Inseparable Hail

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things. Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below.”

Way Trying Looks Art Lying Art Is Window Appearance Surface Holes One Way Tension Introducing Beneath The Surface

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue.”

Want Process Rocks Materials Sticks Surface Opening Leafs Process Of Life

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature.”

Want Needs Trying Art States Light Earth Energy Grows Process Understanding Growth Movement Materials Source Keys Seasons Resistance Weather Sensitive Shock Decay Implicit Transience

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“When I’m working with materials it’s not just the leaf or the stone, it’s the processes that are behind them that are important. That’s what I’m trying to understand, not a single isolated object but nature as a whole.”

Trying Important Whole Process Behinds Objects Materials Stones Isolated Leafs

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“Ideas must be put to the test. That's why we make things; otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realization. I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work.”

Ideas Would Be Differences Huge Tests Realization Great Idea Realisation

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“For me looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. Place is found by walking, direction determined by weather and season. I take the opportunity each day offers: if it is snowing, I work in snow, at leaf-fall it will be leaves; a blown over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches.”

Ifs Form Fall Found Opportunity Difficult Tree Materials Source Walking Offers Seasons Determined Snow Weather Branches Each Day Working It Touching Leafs Inseparable Twigs

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“My approach to photograph is kept simple, almost routine. All work, good and bad, is documented. I use standard film, a standard lens and no filters. Each work grows, strays, decays-integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expresses in the image. Process and decay are implicit.”

Moments Use Shows Film Grows Process Simple Alive Approach Standards Photograph Height Cycles Routine Intensity Decay Lenses Good And Bad Filters Implicit

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.”

Years Art Past Artist Dies Process Art Is I've Learned Over The Past

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

“Not being able to touch is sometimes as interesting as being able to touch.”

Sometimes Able Artist Interesting

Book:Midsummer Snowballs

Source: Midsummer Snowballs

Quote by John Ciardi

Author

You May Also Like