Goody-B Wiseman

It's been awhile since I've had the luxury of snooping the corners of the internet for inspiring artists. I stumbled across this amazing and wonderful artist named Goody-B Wiseman who reminds me of a Yukon artist I will post about a bit later. Her small scale bronze sculptures are awesome and I really really hope that she is making more of them right now!

I discovered that Wiseman attended NSCAD for her undergraduate degree before moving to San Fransisco to complete her MFA. I could not determine whether she is Canadian or American, not that it really matters, but it is interesting for me to track themes I am interested in across Canadian artists. She now lives in Maine and is working at raising a baby and building a home with her partner. And yes they are doing everything themselves.

Goody-B Wiseman makes tiny bronze sculptures of children dressed as animals. That isn't ALL she does, she also makes works on paper and films but these little pieces have captured my imagination. The photos unfortunately are crap. Here's hoping that with the 30 or 40% take the gallery has they will invest in a competent photographer to do justice to their artists' work. (ok short rant over).

I scoured the internet looking for more information about Goody-B but couldn't come up with very much that was recent or interesting aside from this little excerpt from an interview with Akimbo:

3. Old People & Animals

I like old people and animals more than other people and other things. They are wonderful, they are true, and they have excellent stories.

Old people are, in general, in a better position to be good people and they are good people much more often then younger people are. They’ve lived longer lives and have had time to practice patience, empathy, observation, kindness, and generosity. Old people have more and often better and longer stories. Stories are essential, keepers of stories are precious, and patient and generous keepers of better and longer and truer stories are my favourite.

Animals are, in general, in a good position to be better than people. They don’t lie or cheat. They do steal, but I don’t mind. Animals activate some ancient nature-magic for me and connect me to mythology. I prefer anything that involves animals, especially stories.

After reading this am interested to know why the pieces are made with what appear to be child figures when she obviously has such an affection for the elderly. I wonder what the pieces would be like if the animators under the masks/costumes were old people instead of young people.

I find Wiseman's work and approach to life fascinating and I love the implicit narrative at work in her pieces. I love that they work together or as individuals and the story can change depending on which pieces are together or isolated. I also love that they fit in the palm of your hand and have weight. It is like when I was a kid and had some comfort carrying around a secret idol in my pocket that held a story only I could tell.

You can see more of her work at the Gallery Page and Strange  or try to see the art via really shitty photos at Katharine Mulherin.