Catawampus

Artist: Dougherty, Patrick

Date: 2008

Medium: Dried willow tree branches

County Department: Parks and Recreation

Artwork Site: Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden

Supervisorial District: 5

Current Status: Temporary work deinstalled

About the Artwork: Patrick Dougherty’s temporary sculpture added delightful whimsy and architectural innovation to the Los Angeles County Arboretum grounds. The artwork, Catawampus, was initiated and commissioned by the Arboretum. Dougherty and a team of volunteers fabricated and installed the sculpture in February 2008 . The artist engages volunteers in the making of his works encouraging what he believes to be a universal human instinct to gather and build with sticks. Using tree saplings from a willow farm in Pescadero, CA, the artist and his volunteer team wove the sticks to form an organic sculpture that invites visitors to enter, touch and meander. This artwork is no longer on view.

About the Artist: Patrick Dougherty, an internationally renowned artist based in North Carolina, began creating sculptures composed of tree saplings in the early 1980s. Dougherty was originally a ceramic artist, and came to use living materials partly through a desire to create more monumental work. He studied ancient building techniques and began to use tree saplings as the sole material for his art. He continued to explore this organic medium in the following decades and has created over 175 such works in the United States, Europe, and Asia including constructions at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and the Tallaght Community Art Centre in Dublin, Ireland.