Growing up in the wilds of Chester
County my friends and I would
fashion tree branches into spears and use them as weapons in our pretend
childhood battles. Whether it was a game of cowboys and Indians, a Passion
Play--one Easter we built a giant cross and tied a playmate to it as “Jesus,”
then planted the cross in the ground—we were imaginative when it came to the
earth’s raw materials. My childhood was all about sticks and saplings, walking
sticks for hikes, my brother’s home built forts, sticks for kindling in the
fireplace, sticks for marshmallow roasts, or gigantic bishop’s staffs. The piling
of many sticks together sometimes resulted in bonfires or quickly built wigwams
along the banks of the local creek.
Frazer, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Thinking about those country days, I realize that they are the perfect
precursor to the sculpture of Patrick Dougherty.
If
you’ve never heard of Patrick Dougherty, I’d advise you to Google his name and
check out his work. If you don’t want to do that, wait until the month of April
and then head out to the Morris Arboretum where you will be able to see the
work of the Chapel Hill, North
Carolina resident. Dougherty’s work is composed of
all natural materials like twigs, saplings, branches and sticks. His stick
woven sculptures are generally 25-plus feet high and they can take many forms. They
can take the shape of houses, thatched huts, wigwams or haystacks with curvy
windswept tops that seem to be “singing” and alive. The structures have open
doorways and windows or oval like portholes through which viewers can peek
through. Sometimes there are pathways that lead from one dwelling to another, a
stick work fantasy that conjures up the primal and which leads viewers into
another world.
I had an
opportunity to interview Dougherty recently, but since a long conversation was
not possible, I suggested a brief chat, perhaps 15 minutes tops. I was given a
day and a time in which to call, 3 PM EST on a weekday when the artist would
still be working on his Long Beach, California
installation. After the completion of that installation, he would then head to Philadelphia
in March to prepare the Morris Arboretum exhibit. Dougherty is no stranger to
the Morris Arboretum. His first installation there was in 2009 (“Summer
Palace”) and in 2015 he was back with, “A Waltz in the Woods.” Dougherty never
titles his installations until the sculptures have been erected. It’s then that
the name or the theme of the installation comes to him. Since his new
installation at the Morris opens to the public on March 30th, the
Morris probably won’t be able to announce a title until March 29.
When I called Dougherty, he answered on the
second ring. ”I’m on top of scaffolding in Long Beach,
California,” he said. “It’s a beautiful
sight… it’s right on the ocean. We’re at the Long Beach Museum; they have a
large pottery selection here so we decided to take on these 15 feet ceramic
shapes…various kinds of shapes with different tips and it’s looking pretty
good.”
I mentioned
his upcoming trip to Philadelphia
for his third Morris exhibit. “Can you believe they want me so much?” he said.
Dougherty
travels extensively for his work and says he works for three weeks of each
month on location. He makes about ten sculptures a year both in the United
States and internationally. In Belgrade, Serbia,
he built a sculpture in front of the American embassy. He’s built about 250
sapling sculptures in his 30-year career and he is the recipient of many
awards. In 2010 The New York Times ran a feature on his work (“Building With Sticks
and Stones”) and described it as “whirling, animated shapes that resemble
tumbleweeds or gusts of wind.”
Dougherty
told me that people love the idea of simple shelters and of walking into
structures that may resemble the forts they may have built as children. His
perishable sculptures can last anywhere from one to two years depending on
weather conditions. But they always conjure up a fantasy world where, Dougherty
says, “for just a minute you can forgive the rest of the world and focus on
those primal feelings within.” These
sculptures are also where children seem to thrive.
“You
know,” Dougherty told me, “Viewers of my work carry a lot of subliminal ideas
about sticks, whether that might be childhood play, the Garden of Paradise,
or talking to animals. Certainly for children, sticks are an imaginative
object.”
On the Arboretum’s website there’s a call for volunteers to help Dougherty construct the installation. Volunteers must be able-bodied and not afraid to climb ladders or work on scaffolds; they usually work in groups of four for four hours a piece. Dougherty’s working pace, it’s been said, is “fast and furious.” The 2019 work will be built in the Madeleine K. Butcher Sculpture Garden, not far from the Arboretum’s Wisteria Walk and the English Park. Opening day is March 30 (10 AM to 4 PM) with Irish bagpipers performing at the sculpture site.
Dougherty told me that this year’s Morris installation will be very different than what he did in 2009 and 2015. “After all,” he said, “it’s difficult to follow yourself, but we will probably make objects that are more ‘open to the sky.” He praised the Morris staff for their help at the 2015 installation. “They were especially helpful when it came to working at the top of the scaffold. ‘You just tell us what you want and we’ll do it,’ they told me.”
Although raised and educated in North Carolina, Dougherty’s family came to the States from Donegal County, Ireland in 1850, settling at first in Chicago and then moving to Oklahoma.
Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor
Philadelphia Free Press
