When first looking at the amazing art by Patrick Dougherty you're immediately struck with a sense of wonder and childlike imagination, or at least we were. Dougherty creates out-of-this world sculptures, enlisting in a classic form of architecture and creation through using sticks, tree trunks, and stems as his medium, creating whimsical, whirling shapes and structures.
Dougherty was born in 1945 in Oklahoma and grew up to earn a B.A in English from the University of North Carolina and an M.A. in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa. He eventually went back to school in North Carolina to study art history and sculpture, beginning his career in Stick Art. In combining his love for nature with his woodworking skill, he began testing out tree saplings as building materials and soon moved on to bigger installations. His work has been seen all over the world, from Japan to Scotland, to all over America, and has won many awards, like the 2011 Factor Prize for Southern Art, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
Having created over 230 environmental installations over the past 30 years, Dougherty's art ranges from huge cocoon-like nests you can hide inside to twirling pieces extending over a long tree line. His works seem to tell stories, each candid and imaginative, providing a refuge for the feral child in each of us. He manages to strike a delicate balance between the crudeness of materials with the elegant lines round shapes they're bent into.
We're not sure why Hollywood hasn't snatched him up yet for their set design team but they need to because his fanciful work (with their innate possibility for a supernatural eeriness depending on their surroundings and lighting) would fit in seamlessly with visionary director's like Guillermo del Toro. However, Dougherty may already be on Hollywood's radar because it's hard to imagine his work not influencing the look of the giant nest in "Where the Wild Things Are."

For more information visit StickWork.net.