Born in 1945 and raised in the woodlands of North Carolina, Patrick Dougherty developed an appreciation for the utility of sticks during childhood play and became aware that sometimes a thicket of branches can achieve the effect of a natural drawing. Despite a career in health administration, he continued to pine for wild places, and in the early 1980s he tried his hand at weaving tree saplings into large three-dimensional sketches. In subsequent years, Dougherty has developed a body of work that seems to fly through trees, overtake buildings, and define, in his stand-alone structures, a kind of modern primitive architecture. He has made over two hundred sculptures around the world and currently lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Linda, and his son, Sam.