Respect Authority

As of press time, we are still not living in Whoville, the fantastical realm of the peaceful, fun-loving and oddly-nosed Whos, and accordingly, the sculptures produced by North Carolina’s Patrick Dougherty are anything but typical. Of course, the Lorax may disagree, but nobody ever listened to that guy anyway.

All right, let’s not beat around the bush here (HAHA GET IT?!), and just admit that this shit is fucking awesome and really does look like it’s out of some Suessian alternate dimension. I want to live in one Dougherty’s literal tree houses, like a crazed wild man with my enchanted woodland creature pals, and we would communicate with simple drawings and guttural noises, hunt for berries together while singing songs, and play Xbox 360 games together all day long.

Dougherty began making these incredible sapling sculptures in the early eighties on a much smaller scale. Today, he creates entire environments which require truckloads of saplings to build. Inspired by his traditional carpentry skills and love of nature, Dougherty began his endeavors by exploring primitive building techniques, and now explores the process of blowing our fucking minds right out of our primitive heads.

Whether or not your preference in art is gigantic constructions made out of twigs, which I’m betting is probably a big “um… no,” if for no other reason than you just didn’t realize this was even a viable medium in the art world, Dougherty’s creations have an overwhelming presence. Look, my heart is as black as the starless night, which all the doctors I’ve asked agree is a strange condition, but even I’m stunned by the originality and whimsy in these sculptures. I’m also stunned by the fact that I just used the word “whimsy.”

The interesting dichotomy in his work is that he uses incredibly natural materials to create entirely unnatural structures. The wind-swept look ends up making most emaciated hipster warlocks look pretty weird, and it has the same effect here, except in Dougherty’s constructions’ case, “weird” is actually good, whereas in Brooklyn, “weird” is just everywhere. Plus, the haircut isn’t even that weird anyway, it just makes you look like a fucking loser, especially when those wispy tips were frosted and spiked up with an excessively generous fistful of product but five years ago.

Dougherty’s website does not say that he is available for tree fort requests, so I think we can safely assume he is and start sending those requests in. Just as a head’s up — no girls are allowed in mine, except my mom, and even then, only if she’s carrying cookies. …Although upon further consideration, I will also accept brownies.