Why Shoes?

Why am I painting shoes? The snarky answer would be “why not?” Or “because they’re there.” But this is not a snarky blog and actually neither answer is accurate.

My shoe painting obsession can be directly traced to my good friend Lauren Finizio. Soon to be Lauren LeoGrande. That’s right Lauren BigLion. What a great last name. But I digress. I have studio shoes, as many painters do. I also have studio pants, shirts, purses and sometimes hair.  I get carried away when I’m painting.

The studio shoes. An art archive in themselves.

Back to the studio shoes. They are paint splattered, slopped, dropped, dripped – you get the idea.  I forget they’re on my feet, and wear them out into the real world.

Lauren (who is an artist herself, but not fully ready to admit it) caught a glimpse of them and loved them. Actually she said, “dude, those are so cool!” One day she brought a pair of white Converse to my house, and said, “paint these!”  She did say please. So I turned to my trusty acrylic paints, channeled the unique essential nature of Lauren, and dove in. I generally work in 2-dimensional media, I am not a sculptor or assemblage artist. But I found myself loving the small canvas in 3-D form.

Lauren Finizio. She just looks cool.

Converse in progress.

The final product: Finiz

Some mediums that I really like:

• Uni-Posca paint pens (love, love, love them! They come in fine, medium, bold and extra bold)
• Pebeo paint tubes
• Acrylic paint
• Liquitex fabric medium (mix with acrylic paint to retain the body of the fabric)

My process is one of constant experimentation.  As with all art, there’s no wrong way to do it.  I sometimes spray the shoes with water, then draw with Posca paint pens. Spray again (and again and again) to spread the paint; achieves a watercolor effect. I let them dry and then work back in with the paint pens. Or let them half dry and go back in with the pens. The water spray bottle is my best friend with shoe painting.

The Pebeo paint create a raised texture. Or I may smear it with a sea sponge, my hand, a paper towel for a rougher effect. I tend to layer no matter what medium I’m working in, so I’ll go back many times to add, cover, scratch, obliterate, whatever.

So if you don’t know what to paint, paint your shoes. Or let me know, and I’ll paint them for you. Visit Art Walks and let your imagination run.