2008 Woodie Awards
Patrick Dougherty:
Organic Art
By: Elizabeth Conner
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Features
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Countless passers-by have stopped to look at the pile of branches located between the Union Building and East College. However, this pile of sticks is slowly transforming into a work of art, thanks to visiting artist Patrick Dougherty.
From Nov. 1-19, DePauw students will be able to contribute to a large-scale environmental sculpture for the first time in campus history. Internationally prominent sculptor Patrick Dougherty will be creating his work with all natural materials and invites students to partake in the building process. The finished piece will grace the campus for several years to come.
Dougherty enjoys combining his love for nature with his artistic abilities. An avid outdoorsman, he said he understands the natural world and devotes much of his time to it. All of his pieces are created from intertwined branches and saplings. Furthermore, he creates his site-specific pieces to appear as though they naturally developed in their setting.
"I'm an outdoor guy." Dougherty said. "It's easy for me to understand outdoor material as I've always had my foot in the woods,"
Although simplistic, his medium of sticks and twigs holds a much deeper meaning. Dougherty has always been inspired by the fact that animals have been able to build flawless structures with these materials since the beginning of time, and aspires to bring art back to its most natural form. He also believes that sticks and twigs can be credited as the most important primitive source of building material.
"It was something that mankind has been using for millions of years as its primary building material, certainly before Lowe's and Home Depot," Dougherty said. "If someone needed a tool handle, they just went and got one out of the woods and hundreds of years ago, that was the major source of how you build things."
The process Dougherty uses to create his pieces is methodical. First, he visits the space in which he is to create his work and notes how he feels while there. He then makes word associations with the site, and proceeds to make a series of thumbnail sketches of what he visualizes for the piece. Finally, Dougherty takes the logical aspects of the piece into consideration such as where he will obtain materials for the piece and how much space he can consume.
From Nov. 1-19, DePauw students will be able to contribute to a large-scale environmental sculpture for the first time in campus history. Internationally prominent sculptor Patrick Dougherty will be creating his work with all natural materials and invites students to partake in the building process. The finished piece will grace the campus for several years to come.
Dougherty enjoys combining his love for nature with his artistic abilities. An avid outdoorsman, he said he understands the natural world and devotes much of his time to it. All of his pieces are created from intertwined branches and saplings. Furthermore, he creates his site-specific pieces to appear as though they naturally developed in their setting.
"I'm an outdoor guy." Dougherty said. "It's easy for me to understand outdoor material as I've always had my foot in the woods,"
Although simplistic, his medium of sticks and twigs holds a much deeper meaning. Dougherty has always been inspired by the fact that animals have been able to build flawless structures with these materials since the beginning of time, and aspires to bring art back to its most natural form. He also believes that sticks and twigs can be credited as the most important primitive source of building material.
"It was something that mankind has been using for millions of years as its primary building material, certainly before Lowe's and Home Depot," Dougherty said. "If someone needed a tool handle, they just went and got one out of the woods and hundreds of years ago, that was the major source of how you build things."
The process Dougherty uses to create his pieces is methodical. First, he visits the space in which he is to create his work and notes how he feels while there. He then makes word associations with the site, and proceeds to make a series of thumbnail sketches of what he visualizes for the piece. Finally, Dougherty takes the logical aspects of the piece into consideration such as where he will obtain materials for the piece and how much space he can consume.
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