Avant-Gardenist: “Sticks are something we all have in common. Everybody knows sticks - the twigs and branches picked up on grandfather's farm; the branches woven in grandmother's basket. Somewhere threaded in all the public mass is a common thread, and that thread is the human spirit.” --Patrick Dougherty Known as the "Stick Man," land artist Patrick Dougherty twists and weaves truckloads of sticks and tree saplings into immense, organic environments that stand as statements of his artistic interplay with the natural world. Elegant, sinuous, often whimsical, Mr. Dougherty's work evolved from his childhood wanderings in the woods of his North Carolina home and evokes memories of treehouses, basic needs for nesting and sheltering, and the urge to explore, hide, and play. Since 1982, Mr. Dougherty has achieved international acclaim with over 175 site-specific sculptures created throughout the world. Mr. Dougherty says of his work: "My affinity for trees as a material seems to come from a childhood spent wandering the forest…a place with thick underbrush and many intersecting lines evident in the bare winter branches of trees. When I turned to sculpture as an adult, I was drawn to sticks as a plentiful and renewable resource. I watched animals work and realized that saplings have an inherent method of joining—that is, sticks entangle easily. This snagging property is the key to working this material into a variety of large forms. Patrick Dougherty ~ Stickwork Incredible Nest Houses The Upper Crust Childhood Dreams Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Videos on YouTube Images on Google Groups on Flickr Everyone's uploads on Flickr .