Washington Diary 2003

Andy Goldsworthy made this diary page in Washington, using a photograph and handwritten text on paper. The photo is tiny, just a glimpse of something organic and shadowed. The real action is in the writing itself, where the words feel like another kind of mark-making, the letters all squished together, a field of tiny, careful strokes. The writing crowds the page, a dense block hinting at a private thought process, a personal meditation. It's so interesting how the placement of the image above the block of writing creates a sense of space and depth. Thinking about other artists whose work also combines text and image, someone like Cy Twombly perhaps, where writing becomes a form of drawing, a kind of personal code that invites us into the artist's world without fully revealing its secrets. This piece reminds us that art doesn't always need to shout; sometimes, it whispers.