Ruby Valentino
Shoe 109 Location: On Exhibit with Haywood County Arts Council, Waynesville, NC Most of the time when I create the shoes for this project, i stick pretty close to the original design of the shoe. WIth Ruby Valentino, I wanted to explore the texture of the leather through the contrast of black and white. As […]
Words Hurt II
Shoe 108 This is the second edition of Words Hurt, created during the initial phase of the Shoes as Storytellers Project. With this shoe, my goal was to make the walls even thinner to allow more light to pass through. Here’s the original story: When I was in junior high school, 7th grade, I was […]
Girl, You Been to Church, but You Ain’t Been Prayin’
Shoe 100 Last year I met Tanya when teaching a shoe class. She brought this shoe as her goal and as we worked through the class shoe we talked about how to approach making this shoe. Taking notes each day, she finally looked at me and said, “If I give you this shoe to make […]
Woman’s Work II
Shoe 75Available I picked up a pair of hot pink stilettos at the thrift shop because I knew Krista and Elaine would be sending heels for the project, and I needed to figure out how to make heels. When I put them in my cart, there was an older woman there giving me a very […]
Enchanted Footsteps
I share photos of my shoes online, and of course they are seen while on exhibit. It’s interesting how often people reference Cinderella’s slippers, regardless of how different the shoes look from those depicted in the stories. These comments inspired me to create my own version of a glass slipper—one that captures the enchantment and […]
Mask & Mirror
They say that the artist who started a piece isn’t the same person when the piece is complete. We evolve during that time – through our experience, we learn more about our world as well as ourselves. Not long into my project, I overheard the story for Still Me while viewing the Smithsonian Exhibit, The […]
Woman’s Work
I picked up a pair of hot pink stilettos at the thrift shop because I knew Krista and Elaine would be sending heels for the project, and I needed to figure out how to make heels. When I put them in my cart, there was an older woman there giving me a very strange look. […]
Forever Changed II
Several years after the accident, after the clunky orthopedic shoes, after the different variations of protecting my ankle from harm, and after years of wearing slacks, I wanted to go out in a pair of shoes that could be worn with a skirt. I found these slip-on black shoes. Not a dressy shoe, but somewhat […]
Still Me
I just left the gym after playing ball with a friend. On my way home, I hit the store to pick up some groceries. I was getting ready to leave when the security guard at the door stopped me to see the receipt. He insisted I stole something, and even though I was cooperating, he […]
Memories from Long Ago
The shoes belonged to my mother. She sent them to me to wear with a dress for a wedding I was attending. I never ended up wearing, these shoes but kept them in the original box, with my mother’s name hand-written on the outside. -Yaffa These shoes presented a lot of challenge to me while […]