Mark Arts outdoor installation transforms twigs into artistic structures

For the past 30 years, Patrick Dougherty has transformed sticks and saplings into whimsical and inviting structures, a practice he calls stickwork. His humble materials are evocative of childhood, when a stick could be a tool, a weapon or a piece of a wall.

“There’s the emotional content of our memories, of walking into the woods and kissing your girlfriend for the first time,” said Dougherty. “I’m fortunate to have chosen material that was unlikely but that has so many positive associations.”

This month, the environmental artist and a crew of more than 120 community volunteers created a new installation on the Mark Arts lawn, between the art center’s building and the intersection of 13th and Rock Road.

The completed structures will be on view for at least two years. An opening celebration will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 20. The event is free and open to the public.

Dougherty, who will soon turn 77, worked on the Mark Arts project in a walking boot due to an injury that began with his dog digging a hole in the yard. He is beginning to think about retirement. But he still creates about 10 installations per year with the help of volunteers and Sam Dougherty, his son and full-time construction assistant since 2016.

The structures they create together hover somewhere between the disciplines of architecture and basket weaving. With the help of construction scaffolding and thousands of volunteers, the Doughertys have built them all over the world at host sites including museums, botanical gardens and college campuses.

To volunteer Angie Daniel, the installation she helped with is a testament to the natural world.

“I just love being out in nature,” she said. “Seeing this come together, you can see the restorative power of nature, the beauty of it.”

Each project begins with a concept drawing to outline the “primary forms,” but the look of the finished work depends on the available materials and number of volunteers.

“This (installation) has a rough-and-tumble look to it because of the nature of the materials,” Dougherty said. The finished piece incorporates elm and rough dogwood, supplemented with more delicate willow sticks and saplings.

Crews harvested from sites in and around Wichita, including Elderslie Farm, a city water reclamation area and the Great Plains Nature Center.

After bundling and transporting the raw material, volunteers stripped off most of the leaves so the sticks and saplings can be woven into place.

Dougherty joked that volunteering to help build is a personality test: there are “one stick a day” people and those who approach it in a frantic, scattershot way.

“Building can be a bit of a free-for all,” Dougherty said. “But there’s a level of cooperation, sensitivity and intent required to do this kind of work.”

And stamina, he could have added.

“I’ve learned that making art is hard work and tedious at times,” observed volunteer Craig Plank as he took a short break from hauling rough dogwood saplings out of a poison-oak-covered harvest site at the Great Plains Nature Center.

Dougherty echoed that sentiment: Working on his projects disabuses people of any ideas they might have had about artists being lazy, he joked.

This project was certainly challenging. They struggled to harvest enough material and endured storms and 90-degree temperatures.

“Working with Patrick and Sam has been great fun,” said Chris Brunner, a Wichita sculptor and Mark Arts board member who volunteered for multiple phases of the project. “We’ve gotten to play in the rain and the mud.”

Brunner said that coming together with other members of the community to help execute the project was a meaningful experience. The result is a line of three structures with windows and doors, open to the sky so that snow and ice won’t weigh them down.

“With the wind here, we’ve built double-walled structures that lean into each other, so I don’t think this thing will ever blow away,” Dougherty said. “You want to make something that is evocative, but you also have to be practical.”

Other considerations include safety, accessibility and comfort. When a visitor walks into one of the roomy Mark Arts structures, they will be able to see the sky above them and the windows and doors will reveal the world around them.

Given that Mark Arts doubles as an event venue, Dougherty is excited about the possibility of people experiencing his work in an almost accidental way.

“We’ve made an end run around many people’s objections to art that way,” he said.

If you go

Opening Celebration for Stickwork and “What on Earth is Happening?” Exhibition

5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, May 20

Mark Arts, 1307 N. Rock Road

Mark Arts is also celebrating the opening of “What on Earth is Happening?,” an exhibition curated by Bill McBride. Both McBride and Patrick Dougherty will speak briefly.

This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 3:47 AM.