Discover DFW: Stickwork

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - When you think of art, you probably picture paintings or sculptures. But an art display in Fort Worth is turning heads and bringing a whole new appreciation to the beauty that can come from our natural surroundings by using nothing but sticks.

It's called "Stickwork" and guests can experience the unique work by visiting the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

"It's sort of like a maze… it is sort of like a castle, it brings up all kinds of images to mind," Bob Byers with the Botanic Garden describes.

It's a work of art created from tens of thousands of sticks. All the vision of artist, Patrick Dougherty.

"He used sticks everywhere from half an inch and three feet long, all the way to these big pieces that were two and a half and three inches in diameter and were 25 feet long," Byers explains.

Dougherty used specific species of trees for the project which had branches that could bend and flex.

"The last thing he did was come back after everything was in place and use these pieces which are small American Elm saplings to finish out every edge," Byers says.

The finished work of art creates a magical place where adults and children alike can explore and let their imaginations run wild.

"It is really interesting to watch, because people get really meditative when they are looking at it like an object," Byers says. "But then, when they start interacting with it, you get this inner child coming out in people all the way up to their 60s and 70s."

The artist getting inspiration from nature and a problem he encountered as a young artist.

"[Dougherty] said, 'I was a young artist, and I was poor, but sticks were free—so this was something I could afford to do,'" Byers recalls.

A unique art exhibit, that will remain on display, awaiting discovery, until Mother Nature decides it's time has run out.

"The plan with these is that you just leave them in place until they start to naturally go the way of the world and deteriorate," Byers says. "This is frankly one of the most engaging things like this that I have run into in a long time. So I think there are a lot of good reasons to come out to the garden and enjoy Stickwork."

Byers says typically the structures will last between two to three years.

Click here to learn more about and buy tickets to the Fort Worth Botanical Garden.