yardwork

I love the idea that Patrick's works convey of the union of form and chaos. It is a metaphor for this wild crazy existence and its ever changing relationship with the constant of nature. Nature taking on a new form by the hands of chaos or is it the other way around? Perhaps a dance of taking turns leading by both.
I think the way he described them as being "shelters of transition" harmonized with what I think I am personally experiencing in my life in academic ways, personal ways, spiritual ways. Like an open-air cocoon. There is something about his work that is deeper than I can perhaps express, a knowing-ness I can't wrap around just yet. I can't tell if it is a very primal display of communication between himself and the elements around him, no matter where he is, or perhaps it is some kind of fantastical child's play that has been matured and honored by giving a visual voice to these young saplings. Baudelaire's "Morale du joujou" comes to mind. The child's toy introduces the child, just by its play, into the world of art, music, poetry, inviting it with its bright colors and curious shapes. The play of artists is very similar to the play of child with a toy. Perhaps all artists have an intimate memory/connection to their toys this way which lead them down the path of their rapture into creation. Daugherty makes us these brilliant toys to invite us to the world of nature and we become the creation in a sense, in our childlike awe.
I feel his work brings all the elements into play without literally doing so. Fluid like water, warm like fire, cool like the wind, with roots of the Earth.