Yard Work

Creating a dwelling out of sticks sounds primitive, basic, and even instinctual-- after all, people have been doing it since the beginning of time.  But artist Patrick Dougherty, who was a capenter before becoming interested in art, infuses wonder, whimsy, and delight into his stick structures.

Though Dougherty is classified as an Earth Artist or Land Artist (which seems obvious given his medium and installation sites), to me he actually seems more a part of a decorative arts and architecture trajectory... though not an applicable or practical step forward in architecture, his vision echoes the long history of people taking pride in their dwellings.

To me, he rather seems like the Frank Gehry of primitive architecture.  Gehry looked at buildings made of modern materials and asked why they could be more imaginitive and fluid, while Dougherty essentially did the same thing with the most basic building materials.