The push for a Sarasota Museum of Art to be housed inside the old Sarasota High School seems to have stagnated recently, so the folks behind it came up with an ingenious idea: have an artist create a unique piece of art on the front lawn (along a busy road) to draw attention to the building and the project. Enter stickwork artist Patrick Dougherty. He creates art using real tree branches. He's made stickwork projects all over the world including Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, France (very cool looking bottles of wine) and all over the U.S.
He started this project in Sarasota a few weeks ago and it ended up morphing into what looks like several wood turrets, which even have openings for would-be windows. Dougherty and his team used various sizes of crape myrtle branches. When you look closely, you can see how they fluidly bend and weave together without any twigs or sticks protruding. It's a very unusual concept and, as you can imagine, it's attracting a lot of attention.
One of the popular aspects of this project is that you can walk through the turrets and be surrounded by the artwork and gaze up and and down and take it in closely, like Meezie, who I met while taking pictures. She was in awe of the project, like everyone else I've been talking to there. Very cool. Interesting side note: Dougherty has degrees in English and hospital administration and started his stickwork about 30 years ago. To learn more about him check out his website here.
9 comments:
I would imagine basket weaving a castle would get some notice. Hopefully enough to advance such a worthy cause.
I hope it draws the much needed attention. I have seen this gentleman's work before. Excellent!
That's a wonderful way to draw attention. Hope it works.
What a genius way to draw attention to the project!
Fascinating. Reminds me a bit of the Seminole tiki huts...but much more elaborate. Hope that it creates the right kind of interest leading to momentum for the project.
This is a big wow! A great attention-grabber and unique work of art! I assume it's not considered a permanent installation?
I have seen his work in Ohio and Connecticut and maybe elsewhere. Do I love it? No, but it is interesting and it will do the job of catching attention for the museum project.
This is amazing! What Patrick Dougherty has on his web page is even more amazing
I miss all the cool stuff. Thanks for showcasing this, now I can ride down there and see it. :)
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