Artist Patrick Dougherty creates sinuous stick structures all over the world, drawing inspiration and whimsy from his childhood spent playing in the woodlands of North Carolina. While these structures are meant to cultivate a playful rapport with the viewer, they also create necessary tension between the permanence of a structure and its submission to nature. Dougherty’s works are inextricably connected to nature, creating something akin to a long-term performance piece that refers to the natural cycles of life, death, and renewal. The element of time is thus an essential component of this work, and represents a deviation from the typical way we think of and interact with art. Instead of going to a museum to view preserved paintings hung on white walls, Dougherty’s stick sculptures invite us into the dimension of time, allowing us to reflect upon the progression of life. The viewer is at once struck by the whimsy and playfulness of the working, perhaps evoking memories of childhood, but is also confronted by its fleeting nature, and therefore forced to recognize its impending disappearance.