The other night Mark and I watched "Rivers and Tides," a documentary about sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. I hadn't heard of Goldsworthy before, but you can see some of his work here: Eyestorm. (Elsewhere, too, but you can google just as well as I can.)
Goldsworthy seems to me to live an admirable life, following his muse, working at his art both at home and in residencies all over the world. In the documentary there's no mention of grant-writing, and only brief mention of lecturing about his work, though I imagine he has to spend a lot of time doing those things. In the movie, though, he seems to be able to spend all his time doing his art. (Oh, and somehow he has four kids, too. His wife didn't look harried or anything, really.)
I'm sounding snide and I don't mean to. His work is lovely, and his life is admirable, and I guess I wish at some level that I had that, too. But how does one get that life of just working on art? That's what I want to know. How long does it take? How much (in terms of time, money, love, etc.) does it cost?
Can you tell I haven't been making time to write lately? That must be what this is about. See the film, though--it's a fascinating exploration of an artist's life and work. And it made me want to move to Scotland.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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Last night I had dinner with an Eisenhower fellow. He's 34, has already had an amazing career in journalism and politics in his home country, and is now in the process of building a new K-12 school which will be on the cutting edge of technology and learning. He plans to start his own higher education institution once the K-12 school is up and running.
Of course, he comes from a wealthy and powerfully connected family, he's single, very well-educated, and attractive. But he's extremely articulate and focused---as he said, "I never look back. I'm always looking to the future."
I left that dinner trying hard not to feel that I had totally wasted my life. But today I did manage to update my blog, so I guess his example wasn't totally wasted... ;-)
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