Patrick Dougherty's giant stick sculptures
"Traveling Companions" (2013), by Patrick Dougherty, at Deokpyeong Ecoland, Seoul, South Korea.
For the past three decades, the North Carolina sculptor has constructed environmental works on a monumental scale, comprised of wood, branches, saplings, twigs and vines gathered by the truckload. His elaborate and whimsical "stickworks" - he has built more than 250 of them - have been displayed worldwide, and (like real trees) are never permanent.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
Ain't Misbehavin'
"Ain't Misbehavin'" (2010) by Patrick Dougherty, at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C.
Childhood Dreams
An interior view of Patrick Dougherty's "Childhood Dreams" (2007), at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Ariz.
Learning Curve
Sculptor Patrick Dougherty, photographed within his work "Learning Curve" (2013), at the Center for Creativity & the Arts at the University of California, Fresno.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945 and raised in North Carolina, Dougherty studied English and earned a masters in hospital and health administration, before returning to university to study art history and sculpture.
"When I was looking for a way of working as a sculptor, I began looking around at the world and trying to find materials that were free, available, plentiful," he told CBS News' Anna Werner. "So I made some tests with saplings and decided that I could make these big forms."
Saplings
Sculptor Patrick Dougherty with CBS News' Anna Werner, inside a stickwork sculpture being constructed at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.
Double or Nothing
"Double or Nothing" (2011) by Patrick Dougherty, two 20-foot-tall woven-wood structures, grew out of a class Dougherty co-taught at Washington University's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
Melbourne
Artist Patrick Dougherty fashions his sculpture "Little Ballroom" at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia in 2012.
"Little Ballroom"
Artist Patrick Dougherty fashions his sculpture "Little Ballroom" at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia in 2012.
Each of Dougherty's stickworks takes three weeks to construct - and he feels constant pressure to maintain his schedule: "In some ways, it's great to have that kind of pressure. I think having the mayor or the president of the college waiting at the other end, and they really want a good piece - they've already bragged to everybody that it's gonna be great - you know, it really helps stir you up and release energy. And you'll say, 'I've got to succeed. I've got to get out there and make it work. It's gotta be great.'"
"Boogie Woogie"
More than 150 volunteers helped construct Patrick Dougherty's "Boogie Woogie" (2014), at Hermann Park in Houston, Texas.
"Boogie Woogie"
An aerial view of Patrick Dougherty's "Boogie Woogie" (2014), at Hermann Park in Houston, Texas.
"Boogie Woogie"
Cavorting inside Patrick Dougherty's "Boogie Woogie" (2014), at Hermann Park in Houston, Texas.
Call of the Wild
Vine maple and willow were used to create "Call of the Wild" (2002) by Patrick Dougherty, constructed through a reflecting pool at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Wash.
Na Hale 'Eo Waiawi
Strawberry guava and rose apple saplings blend into the sculpture "Na Hale 'Eo Waiawi" by Patrick Dougherty (2003), at the Contemporary Art Museum in Honolulu, Hi.
Of working with sticks, Dougherty told CBS News' Anna Werner, "It's something that stirs the sense of simple shelter. It stirs feelings about childhood. It stirs the walks in the woods, where you had your first kiss. There's just lots of associations connected with sticks. And I try to play with those and build up kind of depth of feeling so that when you walk into something or you walk up to it, you're transported for a minute. You want to go over and look at it. You forgive the real world around it. And you're captivated by a certain kind of illusion that I'm casting."
On the Fly
"On the Fly" (2013) by Patrick Dougherty, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Doughterty's sticks are tapered, "and so you can organize all those tapered lines in a certain direction, and cross them in certain pleasant ways. They give a sense of momentum and activity. And that kind of blends into the ideas that we have about nature in general, that it's about flow, momentum, courses of water, wind blowing, Nature out of control. It gives these objects the sense that they're not really man-made, that they somehow are accretion. Somehow they've just blown in they're something that was stirred up by the natural world and just by happenstance you found it."
Pomp and Circumstance
A detail of Patrick Dougherty's "Pomp and Circumstance" (2011), at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore.
River Vessels
"River Vessels" (2010) by Patrick Dougherty, photographed at the Waco Cultural Arts Festival in Waco, Texas.
"I'm moving through various communities and meeting new groups of people, and the thrill of that - it's kind of a cultural exchange. You're enjoying the energy of different people."
"It kind of contrasts with the image of the loner artist," said CBS News' Anna Werner.
"Yeah, I'm never alone," said Dougherty. "I have no studio doors to close. So the public can walk up at any time and make a comment. And sometimes, when you're dumping the sticks out on the ground the first day, they're calling the police - and those are the same people that are inviting you to dinner when the piece is finished. So there's a complete transition of thinking from day one to day 21, which I like."
Close Ties
Patrick Dougherty's "Close Ties" (2006), erected at the Scottish Basketmakers Circle in Dingwall, Scotland.
Dougherty was inspired by a picture of the Calanais Stone Circle, erected on the Scottish Isle of Harris c. 5,000 B.C.
Childhood Dreams
Fit for a hobbit - nest-like enclosures, titled "Childhood Dreams" (2007), by Patrick Dougherty, featuring hundreds of willow branches, at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Ariz.
Birthday Palace
Patrick Dougherty's "Birthday Palace" (2014), constructed at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hi.
Fit for a Queen
An aerial view of Patrick Dougherty's "Fit for a Queen" (2014), at Ville de Nantes, France. The 12-foot-tall sculpture measured 150' x 150'.
Fit for a Queen
An interior view of Patrick Dougherty's "Fit for a Queen" (2014), at Ville de Nantes, France.
Garden of Curiosities
Patrick Dougherty's "Garden of Curiosities" (2013), at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, Wis.
Just Around the Corner
Mixed hardwood saplings, 100 feet long, form Patrick Dougherty's "Just Around the Corner" (2003) in New Harmony, Ind.
"I imagined intertwining a sculpture into these Hornbeam trees in such a way as to suggest that a fanciful street of twig buildings lay just around the corner from the town's brick storefronts," wrote Dougherty. "I took inspiration from the abandoned Navajo cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde in New Mexico with their evocative doorways. I also tried to blend this sculpture into the streetscape by mimicking the door and window patterns of the nearby buildings as well as relying on the mass of upper branches and green leaves of the Hornbeam tree to provide an exuberant natural roofline."
Muskrat Ramble
"Muskrat Ramble" (2014) by Patrick Dougherty - comprised of maple vines, elm and cherry - at the Portland Children's Museum in Portland, Ore.
Out in Front
"Out in Front" (2013) by Patrick Dougherty, at the Sarasota Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla.
Out of the Box
Patrick Dougherty and an unidentified assistant work on the 2009 sculpture, "Out of the Box," at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, N.C.
Out of the Box
"Out of the Box" by Patrick Dougherty at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, N.C.
Ready of Not
"Ready or Not" (2013) by Patrick Dougherty, at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, N.C.
Summer Palace
Children explore Patrick Dougherty's "Summer Palace" (2009) at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Running in Circles
Perched on scaffolding high in the treetops, Patrick Dougherty and his student assistants fashioned willow and maple saplings into the windswept stickwork sculpture, "Running in Circles" (1996), at the Tickon Sculpture Park in Langeland, Denmark.
Sortie de Cave
Wine bottles looking slightly tipsy in "Sortie de Cave" (2008) by Patrick Dougherty, at Jardin des Arts, Chateaubourg, France.
Ruaille Buaille
Patrick Dougherty photographed inside his sculpture "Ruaille Buaille," at Sculpture in the Parklands, County Offaly, Ireland.
Summer Palace
Patrick Dougherty's "Summer Palace" (2009) at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
For more info:
stickwork.net (Patrick Dougherty's official site)
"Bending Sticks: The Sculpture of Patrick Dougherty" - Documentary by Penelope Maunsell and Kenny Dalsheimer
"Bending Sticks" page on Facebook
North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, N.C.