Yis Goodwin: The Animal Power of NoseGo.

Text by Morgan James. Art by NoseGo.

Yis Goodwin’s art is layered, with a kick. It expands upon itself in a crescendo of utterly discordant components that mesh together in a super-clutch masterpiece.

“When you were a kid with a toy box and the toys were splattered over each other, a cluster of toys on the floor creating its own composition,” Goodwin explains, “when I paint, I envision that.”

Goodwin, known creatively as an Übermensch illustrator, street artist and muralist, grew up in the Graduate Hospital section of the city, not far from his current South Philadelphia studio.

His moniker, NoseGo, originated from a childhood nickname.

“I used to do street art and went by the name ‘Nose,’” he says. “As I was transitioning into the professional world, I wanted to keep my name, but at the same time rebrand myself.”

He combined his nickname with the first two letters of his last name.

“‘Go’ was perfect. ‘Nose, go!’” he exclaims. “It’s energetic like my work.”

Goodwin attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts before graduating from University of the Arts in 2008. While in college, he honed and refocused his given creativity toward a more illustrative expression.

Those expressions can now be found all around the city. He has created more than a dozen commissioned murals, and he exhibits his painted pieces regularly in the city’s galleries. But his hometown is not the only place his work’s been shown.

Goodwin’s work has been displayed in Manhattan, Texas, California, Spain and elsewhere. It will be featured in an upcoming segment of Streetosphère, a French documentary series highlighting urban art. Converse and the hit Cartoon Network series Adventure Time have contracted him to do work.

He’s also created album art for Mic Stew, Tsunami Rising and for Los Angeles experimental hip-hop artist Cory Jreamz. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he serves as art director of Broken Compass Studios, a mobile gaming company he also owns.

This past summer, Goodwin was selected as one of a few people to be featured in the Ron Howard directed Made In America documentary.

The forthcoming film documents Jay-Z’s inaugural Philadelphia music festival, as Howard and his crew captured behind-the-scenes moments to front of the stage performances.

It is no surprise that Goodwin, an unconventional visual artist, was handpicked to represent Philadelphia in a film about the largest commercial music festival to grace the area. Goodwin’s style is gritty and fresh, like the music associated with Philadelphia.

Goodwin painted a huge mural at the festival over the two-day event and a film crew followed him as he worked. Goodwin jokes that it was an organic process, but at times the crew suggested retakes in the name of directorial liberty.

“They were cool,” he recalls. “I’m incredibly honored having been part of it.”

A friend once told him, “I feel big inside.”

That friend unwittingly fueled Goodwin’s artistic signature.

“I thought that was amazing,” he muses. “Some paintings I do where I have a realistic animal coming out of a cartoon mouth, the inspiration originally stemmed from growing up, encountering the typical naysayers. Not just with artwork, with anything. That feeling that you have that you’re bigger than what you actually give off. That you’re actually stronger than what you actually give off. That cartoon character [referring to his work]? That’s me. A silly guy on the outside but I have this animal power breaking out.”

For NoseGo, commonplace growing pains helped spawn awesome fun.

“When I first painted something like that it was me releasing frustration,” he says. “But now I do it because I think it’s a rad image.”