After clearing up the yard, have you ever looked at the gathered pile of branches, allowing your imagination to take flight? Have you envisioned large furry animals, secret hiding huts, or maybe even a long path of decorative walls, punctuated by bridges?

Stickwork Take Five 2 scaled 1 If so, you can witness your imagination become reality on March 4th when something new and excitingly different comes to the Huntsville Botanical Garden. Stickwork, the Garden’s latest installment, takes locally sourced sapling branches and transforms them into an assortment of sculptured masterpieces.

Designed and built by artist Patrick Dougherty, with assistance from the area’s community volunteers, the novel art form exhibit will provide guests of all ages a chance to imagine, play, and find inspiration in nature.

Throughout the month of February, the installation site will be visible to guests, allowing visitors to watch as the sculpture gradually comes to life.

“As a sculptor building site-specific work, I am always eager to work in a new place,” said Dougherty. “In February, partnering with a new organization, working with new volunteers, and learning about a community new to me was a great pleasure.”

Under the guidance of Dougherty, over 100 volunteers will help in the construction of the sculpture by harvesting and weaving local saplings to create an installation of epic proportions.

Inspired by his love of nature and empowered by his skills in carpentry and sculpture, Dougherty decided to learn more about primitive techniques of building and began experimenting with tree saplings as construction material.

Over the past three decades, Dougherty has built over 300 large scale environmental works. For his creations, Dougherty has received international acclaim and his sculpture has been enjoyed by many throughout the United States and worldwide.

Dougherty has also received numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the 2011 Factor Prize for Southern Art, North Carolina Artist Fellowship Award, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship, Japan-US Creative Arts Fellowship, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

“Stickwork inspires a sense of delight, wonder, and curiosity, inviting guests to explore their role in the natural environment,” said Sue Wagner, CEO for Huntsville Botanical Garden. “Patrick Dougherty’s art is renowned for its beauty and connection to nature, and we are delighted to host one of his pieces here at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.”

Stickwork is presented by Window World and will open to the public on Friday, Mar. 4. The experience is included with regular daytime Garden admission and free for Garden members. For more information, visit hsvbg.org/stickwork.

Photos courtesy of the Huntsville Botanical Gardens.