When I first met the man who would became my husband, I told him that I wanted to marry someone who would take me around the world. Thirty years later we are still traveling! And these trips continue to inspire my artwork.
Stickwork by Patrick Dougherty on the Biltmore Estate
As New Orleans experiences the ravages of yet another hurricane, I remember our visit there where I fell in love with the ancient Live Oaks. Their enormous sprawling limbs are breathtaking. I am working on a composition right now inspired by these majestic trees.
The scale of these trees are enormous! I love how the branches look like rolling waves.
Another trip was to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Beginning in 1888 George Vanderbilt II slowly bought up 125,000 acres of spent farmland in North Carolina. In addition to building a beautiful country estate, Vanderbuilt worked with one of the leading landscape designers of the day, Frederick Law Olmsted. Together they reforested this land, planting over a million trees during a ten year period. Through this effort the science of forestry was born. Later Edith Vanderbilt sold 86,700 acres of the estate’s forested mountain land to the federal government creating one of the first national forests, Pisgah National Forest.
Biltmore grounds
Driving through the estate, I marveled at the beauty of the forest. There was so much variety in the trees. It is hard to express how truly special it was. I also enjoyed the many trees in the grounds around the mansion and formal gardens.
Ironwood, NC State Championship Tree on the Biltmore grounds
Sycamore on the Biltmore grounds
For the past year I have been working in a new series, Trees. Why trees? They are silent sentinels witnessing history over years, decades and even centuries. Exposed to all of the elements, trees endure. Weathered trunks and twisting limbs create resilient living sculptures. It makes me think of a verse from the books of Psalms, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields it fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” (Psalm 1:3)
In these changing times, I want to be like a tree.