"I am not what I am. I am what I do with my hands."
Shindig, 2015
"Dougherty has crisscrossed the world weaving sticks into marvelous architecture. Each structure is unique, an improvised response to its surroundings, as reliant on the materials at hand as the artists' wishes: the branches tell him which way they want to bend. This give and take lends vitality to Doughtery's work, so that the walls and spires are a record of gestures and wills. Finding the right sticks remains a constant challenge, and part of the adventure of the art-making sends him scouring over the forgotten corners of land where plans grow wild and full of possibility." From the "Wonder" exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum:
"It is through wonder that men now begin and originally began to philosophize; wondering in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progression raising questions about the great matters too, for example, about the changes of the moon and of the sun, about the stars and about the origin of the universe." Airstotle, 4th century BCE Untitled by Tara Donovan: "Employing mundane materials such as toothpicks, straws, Styrofoam cups, scotch tape, and index cards, Donovan gathers up the things we think we know, transforming the familiar into the unrecognizable through overwhelming accumulation. The resulting enigmatic landscapes force us to wonder just what it is we are looking at and how to respond. The mystery, and the potential for any material in her hands to capture it, prompts us to pay better attention to our surrounding, permitting the everyday to catch us up again."
From the "Wonder" exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum:
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." Albert Einstein, 1931 This is the part of my studio where I go to sit, to do yoga, to read, to pet Sam (the cat), and to look back and reflect on what I have created on the busy end.
From the "Wonder" exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum:
"Wonder is defined as a constriction and suspension of the heart caused by amazement at the sensible appearance of something so portentous, great, and unusual, that the heart suffers a systole." Saint Albertus Magnus lived in the 13th century. |
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