Salixology (WILLOWS & SCULPTURE) with Patrick Dougherty
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Oh hey, it's your new phone case you're not quite used to. Alley Ward. And this is a big one for us. It's a big one for me. It's our 531st episode, but more importantly, this week marks the ninth anniversary since Oligy's first episode came out. So we like to look up those anniversary guides. And I was thrilled to discover that the customary ninth anniversary gift is Willow. I was like, what? I love Willow. I grew up around it. We had a creek in my backyard right outside the gate in a pasture. One of my favorite art. Makes these willow sculptures. If you listen to the field trip episode at the Natural History Museum of LA County, I did years back. I talk about this willow structure built in the gardens that so buoyed my spirits during a really dark time that I named my production company after it, Willow Hud.
That structure was built by an LA artist by the name of David Lovejoy, who had assisted this one internationally acclaimed Willow. Sculpture pioneer whose work I've been obsessed with for the past like 15 years. Um, huge, tangled, but somehow orderly, these sweeping castles made out of sticks. They look like tumbling forms that seem to spill out of buildings. Just a feeling of like, wait, how is this giant thing I'm looking at made entirely of sticks? It's like a fever dream, like an accidental mushroom. Mushroom snack that made the winds conspire to build you a haven. Anyway, that artist that I've been obsessed with is this week's guest. So this is not a topic you ever anticipated. I'm sure you might be like, huh?
It's one that is so close to my heart. I don't even care if you care about it, but you will deeply in less than an hour. So I emailed this guest at an Nowhere. And I said, I'm a huge fan. I would be willing to cross the country for a chance to sit down and ask about your work. And a few weeks later I found myself on these shady roads under the canopies of North Carolina outside of Chapel Hill, about to turn onto this long gravel road that leads to a stone house they share with their wife Linda. So I'm looking for A willow. I'm looking for some sort of stick gate. According to Google Maps. I think I'm getting close. No, okay. It is very woodsy here. Ooh. Here we go. Of course. The gates are made out of sticks.
And then I saw him full head of white hair, wearing a tidy denim shirt and some smart jeans, just ambling casually out of the gate. Hi Patrick! Good, I'm Allie. And we'll hear more about their work, what a willow is, and the history and the folklore behind these weedy trees. But first, a huge thank you to patrons of the show who support at patreon.com/slash ologies and submit questions ahead of time. Thank you to everyone who is out there in Ollogies Merch from OliogiesMerch.com. Thank you to all the folks who leave reviews for the show, which has literally kept us in your ears the last nine years. I read all of them. So thank you, Channa Dailywell. Well, who left a review today saying that Oligies was named in their master's thesis for keeping them focused during very rough lab work.
And so I'm very honored to be cozy in the pages of your thesis. Congrats on the masters. Also timely, given me naming my company after this guest's work. So the only bigger honor is if someone found. a parasite and called it Oligium or something, but one can dream. Also thank you to sponsors of Oligies who make it possible to donate to a cause of this guest choosing. Okay, let's get into it. So Salix is Latin for willow tree, just straight up. And there are somewhere between 330 and 500 plus species of willow in the world. Likewise, fun number coincidence. This oldist has completed 330 sculptures out of willow as well as other woods. So we're gonna chat about species, bendiness, site-specific art installations.
Folklore, plumbing, weeping over willows, aspirin, gloves, caskets, willow remediation to the rescue, and why spending hours a day outside can change your life with environmental sculptor, willow handler, artistic legend, hero of mind, and honorary salexologist, Patrick Doherty. He him.
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