Andy.

Another of my long time artist heros is Andy Goldsworthy. I can't stand documentaries much. The boyfriend loves nature documentaries and I always cramp his style by blurting things out like, "MORE DETAILS PLEASE!" or "Good use of gendered narrative there to explain animal behavior. Did I already tell you about the horse study? Well then let me tell you about how sexism can affect research!" and he's on the couch being all, "Oh lord, please make her stop, I just want to watch HD pictures of whale sharks!"

Balanced Rock Misty, 1977. Image Source: Andy Goldsworthy Works Page

So it says a lot about how much I love Andy Goldsworthy that I will watch Rivers and Tides over and over, biting my nails as he constructs some ice spiral, when (1) I've already seen it a billion times, (2) it is a documentary, (3) there's almost no dialogue, unless slow pans of nature count as a conversation (Andy would count them because he is in dialogue with nature!).

My mom scoffed at the first Andy Goldsworthy book I got as a present for my birthday. And then my folks went to Storm King and saw his wall. And she lost it. Then she went to the National Gallery and saw him working on Roof, and saw Rivers and Tides, and now I suspect she would deny there was ever a time she wasn't on Team Goldsworthy, never ever.

And here he is giving a lecture on Roof. He's just so calm and magical and subtly funny. Also at this link I can recommend Wayne Thiebaud and on tomorrow's listening schedule is definitely Jeanne-Claude and Christo. I just adore them (RIP Jeanne Claude), and hope to go see Over the River in 2013. I was at the Gates and it was phenomenal- all that orange in the middle of bitter NY winter. Another really slow documentary recommendation that I can't watch too many times- Running Fence.