{"id":22556,"date":"2017-11-13T13:34:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T18:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=22556"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:37:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:37:06","slug":"dougherty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=22556","title":{"rendered":"With Dougherty\u2019s \u2018Step Right Up,\u2019 let your imagination run free"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Step Right Up&quot; to Patrick Dougherty&#039;s latest sculpture\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9RBmoiHQftk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u201cStep Right Up\u201d is a fitting name for Patrick Dougherty\u2019s latest <a href=\"https:\/\/ackland.org\/exhibition\/patrick-dougherty-stickwork-ackland\/\">outdoor sculpture at the Ackland Art Museum <\/a>in Chapel Hill. That\u2019s essentially what he\u2019s been inviting the public, fascinated with his larger-than-life stick sculptures, to do for the last 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>Step right up. Walk around. Go inside. Look up and down. Explore.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22557\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22557\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22557 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/11\/PD-with-full-sculpture-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Patrick Dougherty's latest stick sculpture at the Ackland Art Museum is called &quot;Step Right Up.&quot; (Dougherty stands in front of the giant stick sculpture)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22557\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Dougherty&#8217;s latest stick sculpture at the Ackland Art Museum is called &#8220;Step Right Up.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s intrigue in thinking about what it would be like to stand inside a teapot, and we made one big enough for Aladdin to come out of,\u201d Dougherty said, chuckling softly as he took a break from construction on a late October afternoon. \u201cThere\u2019s also the excitement of productivity that we assign to a stick, starting from childhood. It\u2019s a drumstick, a piece of a wall, all of the things that you can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A clay animal-shaped pouring vessel in the Ackland\u2019s permanent collection caught Dougherty\u2019s eye and served as the inspiration for five mammoth vessels constructed on the museum\u2019s \u201cfront lawn\u201d (the side facing Columbia Street). \u201cStep Right Up\u201d will be on display through August 2018; it\u2019s the first major site-specific outdoor art installation by the museum in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>The saplings used to make the sculpture, primarily maple and gum, were donated by Duke Forest and Triangle Land Conservancy and harvested with the help of a network of volunteers. Their support in gathering sticks by the truckload and then preparing them for use in construction helps to \u201cembed the work in the community,\u201d Dougherty said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to hate a sculpture if your neighbors are working on it. It also humanizes the process,\u201d he said. \u201cOver three weeks, people see transition, and it goes from a common material to a more elaborate illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22558\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22558\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22558\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/11\/Pouring-vessel-inspriation-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"A clay animal-shaped pouring vessel in the Ackland's collection served as an inspiration for the sculpture.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22558\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A clay animal-shaped pouring vessel in the Ackland&#8217;s collection served as an inspiration for the sculpture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The experience has been a homecoming of sorts for Dougherty, who received a bachelor\u2019s in English from UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s College of Arts &amp; Sciences in 1967. He then went on to earn a master\u2019s in hospital and health administration from the University of Iowa in 1969, and returned to UNC\u2019s art department for post-graduate work in 1981 and 1982.<\/p>\n<p>Dougherty said his time in the English department helped him to think about the conventions writers employ in making an exciting narrative, and he applies that to his art.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to have a conversation with the public, and to elicit feelings and emotions through your work, that\u2019s not unlike creating a great novel,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of value in learning what makes something have resonance and power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also values his post-graduate studies, especially with professors Mike Cindric (clay and sculpture) and Richard Kinnaird (drawing), who taught in UNC\u2019s art department. The visiting artist program had a significant impact on him as well. To this day he remembers clay artist Susan Peterson saying \u201cIt\u2019s just as easy to be a national artist as a local artist, but you have to want to be <em>in the nation<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Dougherty, that has meant creating nearly 300 sculptures all over the United States and the world, from Scotland to Japan to Brussels to France. He\u2019s constructed works for botanical gardens, children\u2019s museums, universities, a winery, a zoo, even the U.S. Embassy in Serbia. \u201cIt has involved a lot of rental cars and meeting thousands of people and working with hundreds of organizations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22559\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22559\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/11\/Dougherty-with-plans-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Dougherty works with volunteers to help harvest the saplings.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dougherty works with volunteers to help harvest the saplings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He has received numerous awards, including a Factor Prize for Southern Art, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Japan-U.S. Creative Arts Fellowship. His work has been featured in a book, numerous media outlets and a documentary.<\/p>\n<p>Still fame is elusive, Dougherty said, adding that \u201cwhen I come home, my wife brings me back down to earth and says, \u2018the yard needs raking.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After working with sticks eight hours a day, he still does his own yardwork?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh yeah, I love physical activity and working. It\u2019s been good for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The work is indeed physical, bending and shaping sticks eight hours a day, three weeks at a time, in all kinds of weather. Dougherty said it\u2019s very agrarian, \u201ca lot like farm work,\u201d but he has no intention of slowing down. Right now he has installations scheduled through 2019.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if he considers himself an environmental artist, Dougherty said the context of his work has changed over the years. People are now more willing to accept it as being temporary, and they respond to it through their own feelings about the environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt reminds people of all of the moments they might have had,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bird\u2019s nest, that first kiss under the lilac bush, a forest you took a walk in, a significant moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of times people will ask me, \u2018what does it mean?\u2019 And I say, \u2018it\u2019s more about how it makes you <em>feel.<\/em>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Video by Kristen Chavez and story by Kim Spurr, College of Arts &amp; Sciences; photos by Audrey Shore, Ackland Art Museum<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStep Right Up\u201d is a fitting name for Patrick Dougherty\u2019s latest outdoor sculpture at the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill. That\u2019s essentially what he\u2019s been inviting the public, fascinated with his larger-than-life stick sculptures, to do for the last 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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