As a child I often asked myself whether or not trees live a secret life when nobody is looking. Are they moving, changing their shape? Are they just pretending to be rooted? Sometimes in fairytales there are trees that stretch out their branches and try to grab hold of one. To me they’ve always been also a little mysterious, as silent and motionless as they stood there. Now I thought I found a proof for my suspicion, but I had to realize I was looking at the work of a human being. Patrick Dougherty from NC, USA binds those house-like mystical structures which look like fantastic beings from a strange world. They also remind me of the walking old trees from „The Lord of the Rings“, or characters from old fantasy movies. All around the world Mr. Dougherty has made his house-creatures come to life already, read more about his work on www.stickwork.net.

All pictures by courtesy of Patrick Dougherty. © Adam Rodriguez, Paul Kodama, Dole Dean, Aaron Barna