{"person":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"2760"},"lastName":{"label":"Last Name","value":"Joseph"},"endDate":{"label":"Death Date","value":"1998"},"displayName":{"label":"Name","value":"William \"Woody\" Joseph"},"objects":{"label":"Objects","value":[{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2020.4.4","objectID":"7479"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2020.4.3","objectID":"7478"},{"objectTitle":"Head","objectNumber":"2003.20.4","objectID":"3185"}]},"geographyDied":{"label":"Died","value":"Castleton"},"geographyActive":{"label":"Active","value":"Castleton"},"geographyBorn":{"label":"Born","value":"Castleton"},"beginDate":{"label":"Birth Date","value":"1919"},"firstName":{"label":"First Name","value":"William"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":"William \u201cWoody\u201d Joseph was born in Castleton (St. Mary Parish), Jamaica, where he later built his house. He began carving around 1965, two years after Hurricane Flora. Some have reported that he found his inspiriation to carve when he went to a river to heal an injured leg and saw a stick floating in it. He took it as a sign that if he carved the stick, it would lead to his leg healing. He recounted: \u201cI was farming \u2026 yam, banana, cocoa, thyme, cane, dasheen, potato \u2026 farming to get the food from the bushes \u2026 didn\u2019t have no dependents to work the field wid me \u2026 and one day, I tek sick, the two legs cripple. Couldn\u2019t walk, couldn\u2019t stand up, couldn\u2019t lay down \u2026 I go to the river-side and was praying. When mi was praying, I see a piece of wood coming down in de water \u2026 I see the piece of wood swimming in the water to mi. I tek it up\u2026.and form a bird.\u201d (Compiled from archival material in the National Gallery of Jamaica\u2019s Education Department and the Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection.)From then on, he viewed carving as a spiritual service, that in his words \u201ccaptures the heart of justice.\u201d His anthropomorphic and zoomorphic wooden forms were reminiscent of similar forms in African and Taino traditions and demonstrate an imagination that was deeply tied to nature and the spiritual realm. Woody began exhibiting his sculptures in the late 1970s. Notable local and international exhibitions include the National Gallery of Jamaica\u2019s Intuitives series and Redemption Songs: The Self-Taught Artists of Jamaica (1997) organized by the Diggs Gallery, in the United States. He was awarded a Bronze Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica in 1988."},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/26725/full"},"names":{"label":"Names","value":"William \"Woody\" Joseph"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"(1919\u20131998)"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"151596"}}]}