The Wire Zoo

August 1, 2024
How sculptor Elizabeth Berrien became "Godmother of Wire." Elizabeth loved animals but could never draw them as she saw them: composed of graceful lines. With her right hand, she could draw only scribbles. When she knitted using both hands, however, "her brain began rewiring her eyes and hands to work together." But Elizabeth, who'd been taught to use her right hand despite being left-handed, couldn't master drawing, and her high school art teacher's dismissal of her "sloppy work" nearly convinced her to give up art altogether. Fortunately, another teacher, Mr. Curran, encouraged creative problem-solving, renewing her enthusiasm. When he gave her a roll of wire, Elizabeth's hands could finally express "the beauty she'd seen all her life." With practice, she figured out how to shape wire into animals, which earned her acclaim as a "true wire sculptor" and led to her biggest challenge: creating a life-size winged horse exhibit. Working through pain and fear of failure, Elizabeth triumphed. Invited to be an animal park's resident artist, Elizabeth realized that, with her sculptures, she was at last sharing the animals' "energy lines, their life forces," with the world. Though somewhat static, Stone's soft-edged illustrations clearly convey Elizabeth's emotions, and the artist's struggles to conform to right-handed drawing will resonate with readers who move, think, and learn in ways that differ from expectations. Backmatter includes further biographical details and color photos of Berrien's work. Elizabeth presents white; background characters are racially diverse. An encouraging celebration of persistence and self-expression.(Picture-book biography. 5-8)

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September 2, 2024
Wing highlights the importance of perseverance for sculptor Elizabeth Berrien (b. 1950), “the Godmother of Wire,” in this extended biography. An early connection with animals leads Berrien to art as an expressive medium (“Her mind imagined lines flowing across the surface of their bodies”), but methods such as drawing soon prove frustrating for the left-handed artist, who is forced to work right-handed. After an open-minded teacher introduces her to wire, “she’d found the thing that expressed the beauty she’d seen all her life.” Using the new material for sculptures becomes her passion, culminating in the creation of magnificent life-size horses for a store window and a zoo appointment as artist-in-residence. Stone’s smooth, realistic digital renderings showcase the protagonist’s inquisitive nature, while flowing fine lines visualize her preferred material. The in-depth presentation of Berrien’s highs and lows underscores the way that making can take a meandering path. Secondary characters are depicted with various skin tones. Back matter offers more about the figure. Ages 4–8.

October 15, 2024
Grades K-3 Wing never uses the term neurodivergent, but this profile of 3-D wire sculptor Elizabeth Berrien is strewn with hints. Even in childhood, it states, Barrien saw animals "in a special way," and notes that her artistic gifts were long hidden because, despite being a lefty, she was forced to use her "weaker right hand" and so could produce only rough scribbles. Working with string and then wire resulted in a creative breakthrough. The author recounts in detail some of the technical challenges resolved on the way to Berrien's long career sculpting dramatic, distinctive animal figures; she risks going over some readers' heads with descriptions of how the artist learned to capture animals' "energy lines, their life forces."" A sampling of artwork appears in photos at the end, and before that in Stone's painted images of Barrien displaying early models at crafts fairs, working on a set of winged horses for her first big commission, and finally creating an entire ""wire zoo"" as artist in residence for an animal park. A nice introduction to a little-known, plainly talented artist.

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