Daydreams

Created by Patrick Dougherty wielding willows within and around a frontier-style schoolhouse

Daydreams at Night (2017-08-14) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Created by Patrick Dougherty in 2015, Daydreams is woven with willows and is partially enclosed and protected from the Montana elements by a replica frontier-period schoolhouse.

Daydreams (2018-05-21) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

The willows Dougherty used to create Daydreams were gathered from areas near Tippet Rise.

Patrick Dougherty Profile - Daydreams (2017-01-30) by Sculptor: Patrick Dougherty, Director: Djuna Zupancic, Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven Quartet Op. 132 in A minor, 3rd movement, and Performed By: Ariel String QuartetTippet Rise Art Center

Daydreams and Patrick Dougherty (2015-08-18) by Tippet Rise Staff, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

The Artist

As one of today’s most admired living sculptors, Patrick Dougherty composes with nature—wielding saplings and sticks to build monumental structures that echo, play and tussle with the land. Patrick has created more than 200 sculptures around the world. Learn more at www.stickwork.net.

Daydreams (2017-07-10) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Consistently, children are drawn to Daydreams to run, play and explore.

Daydreams before the Willows, Alban Bassuet, Photographer, Patrick Dougherty, Artist, 2015-07-02, From the collection of: Tippet Rise Art Center
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Max Anthon of JxM, created a plan to replicate the nearby Stockade Schoolhouse, down to its missing shingles, which was then re-crafted by CTA Architects of Bozeman.

Daydreams before the Willows, Alban Bassuet, Photographer, Patrick Dougherty, Artist, 2015-07, From the collection of: Tippet Rise Art Center
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Here we see the interior of the schoolhouse before the willow forms were created within.

Daydreams Interior in Detail, Erik Petersen, Photographer, Patrick Dougherty, Artist, 2017-09-18, From the collection of: Tippet Rise Art Center
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The schoolhouse was made to look weathered and beaten, as if it had been there for years.

Daydreams Assembly (2015-07-24) by Tippet Rise Staff, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

The willows Dougherty used to create Daydreams were gathered by Tippet Rise staff over several months in the spring. They then soaked the willows in a pond to prevent them from drying out, keeping them smooth and pliable for Patrick’s weaving and sculpting processes.

Daydreams Assembly (2015-01-29) by Tippet Rise Staff, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Patrick Dougherty brought a team of assistants with him.

Daydreams Assembly (2015-07-29) by Tippet Rise Staff, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Everyone worked together to help Dougherty weave the willows into Daydreams.

Daydreams in Detail (2016-07-26) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

To mimic the weathered roof of the Stockade Schoolhouse, nails were hammered into the structure only partially; shingles were placed askew.

Daydreams Interior (2016-02-24) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Visitors often write and draw on the chalkboard inside the schoolhouse.

Daydreams Interior (2017-09-14) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Messages are left in strokes of brightly colored chalk, drawings and symbols are created, tic-tac-toe is played.

Daydreams in Detail (2017-07-10) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Guests frequently remark that the willow forms remind them of nests; some songbirds do use the sculpture for nesting in the spring.

Daydreams in Spring (2019-03-27) by Emily Rund, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

As the years pass, and the seasons come and go, Daydreams shifts and settles.

Daydreams in Snow (2017-02-04) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Almost all of Dougherty's works are displayed outdoors, making them temporal and ephemeral as they last only a handful of years before they begin to naturally deconstruct, succumbing to the elements.

Daydreams in the Snow (2019-02-21) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Daydreams (2017-08-07) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

"It’s only a one-room, frontier-style schoolhouse, but it’s easy to get lost in 'Daydreams.' It, and I, are being enveloped, inside and outside, by cyclones woven from willow branches..."
-National Geographic Traveler

Daydreams (2017-10-17) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

The cofounder of Tippet Rise, Peter Halstead, writes that Dougherty's weavings are like "Van Gogh's frenzied strokes of oil paint, but calmly reasoned, and patiently bent into place, anchored around key branches."

Poetry in Daydreams (2017-09-11) by Mike Kasic, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

Daydreams has served as the set for films and performances.

Daydream (2017-10-31) by Performed by Eunice Kim and Julien Brocal, Film Director and Cinematographer: Kathy Kasic, Music composed by Eunice Kim and Julien Brocal, Sculpture: Patrick Dougherty, Daydreams, and Sound: Mickey HoulihanTippet Rise Art Center

Daydreams (2017-07-04) by Erik Petersen, Photographer and Patrick Dougherty, ArtistTippet Rise Art Center

"Stepping outside this prairie twister of childhood imagination and looking out at the hills, I realize that, with no visible power lines, this land is as close to what it looked like before. Before what, I don’t know. Before life as I know it, perhaps."
-National Geographic Traveler

Credits: Story

Photography by: Erik Petersen, Emily Rund, Mike Kasic, Alban Bassuet

Writing by: Alexis Adams

Exhibit by: Emily Rund, Sarah Lanier

Sculpture by: Patrick Dougherty

Support from:

Lindsey Hinmon
Managing Director, Programs

Melissa Moore
Communications and Administration Manager

Alexis Adams
Publications Administrator

Pete Hinmon
Managing Director, Operations

Peter & Cathy Halstead
Co-Founders of Tippet Rise

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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