Shoes as Storytellers – the Collection

Click on any shoe to load their story

image of two pairs of glass baby booties with shoelaces
Mother’s Love
Torn Apart*
image of three glass toddler sneakers in grey, brown and purple
Disrupted Play
Glass cowboy boot in blue and brown distressed leather
My Cowboy Boots
photo of glass boot with glass leaves stepping in glass dirt
A Walk in Pisgah
Glass Military Dress shoe with high polish
Still Me
Growing Up *
Sparkle *
Graduation Day *
Still Me*
The Practice *
image of pair of blue sneakers made from glass
These Almost New Shoes *
My Ruby Slippers
Pair of glass blue mary jane style shoes
Dreams Come True *
Two black glass women's dress shoes
Forever Changed II *
image of two slip on men's shoes in glass
Yard Work Shoes *
Flip Floppin’ *
Sliced *
Glass men's dress shoe with laces
Ghosts
Glass Brooks Brothers Sneaker with Breat Cancer Ribbon
Miles Beyond
Big Bend and Memory Shoe *
Textured Cosmos *
Memories from Long Ago *
Glass women's sling with thick heel
Pain in the Toe
Glass blue heel shoe
Words Hurt
Glass sling with wedge heel
Fashionable
Woman’s Work *
Glass sneaker with thick sole
Forever Changed
Garage Shoe *
Garage Shoe in the Studio *
How do shoes get on the road?*
Having Fun*
Jeff’s Shoe
Blowing Glass – Jeff’s Shoe *
Dog Ate My Slipper *
Laundered *
Kickin’ Back*
Relaxed*
First Shoe *
Found *
Glass moccasin
Trashed Mock-asin *
When I am an old lady *
image of worn sneaker made from glass
Baltimore 2019*

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

Please check back or sign up for my email list to hear when new venues are added.

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!

Shoes as Storytellers ((softcover edition))
Shoes as Story…
By Dori Settles
Photo book
Click here to purchase the softcover book ($50)
Click here to purchase the hardcover book ($65)