Shoes as Storytellers – the Collection
Click on any shoe to load their story











































Photography by artist and *Ivaylo Gueorgiev
THE PROJECT
At the end of 2021, I launched a project called Shoes as Storytellers. The project is about empathy – walking or standing in another’s shoes – and I have asked people from near and far to donate or sponsor a pair of shoes and a story related to those shoes. My goal was to create 52 shoes – each representing one step in the 5,280 feet in a mile.
As of March 2023, I have created 55 individual shoes, several as pairs.
Like each person who provided their shoes, each shoe is unique and poses new technical challenges. Some shoes I have created without soles – mostly because this is one of the easiest ways to cast the shoes. But as I’ve been creating more shoes, I am engineering soles back into the shoes. Not all shoes have been the best candidates for the casting process. Regardless, like the people who wore them, I push forward and figure out how to keep going.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
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2023/24 TBD Waterworks Visual Art Center, Salisbury NC
2025 May/June Hiddenite Arts & Heritage Center, Hiddenite, NC
THE BOOK
Add the companion book to this exhibition to your collection today!