April 2008
I am fascinated by the historical relationships between extremes in social classes - the artist and the noble, the shoe maker and the dandy. I explore the extravagant styles and fashions of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries where for a brief period, men got to play dress up too. This flamboyance has inspired me to create an exaggerated world.
As a costumer I have designed outfits for countless imag
inary people, but shoesoften remain on the sketchpad. They are the shoes of the decadent and the elite, the shoes I didn't get to make. In life as in the theatre, it is only the truly wealthy who get really beautiful shoes.
My shoes are like lost treasures as if just discovered; only one of the pair remains, the other having been lost during the passage of time. Each piece nestles within a unique structure as a pearl in its shell. They are contained in their boxes and resting places as if in protection against time and reality.
These life size shoes could have been worn by those whose feet rarely touched the ground, and had no reason to be practical. I imagine the whims of kings; 'something in brocade and silk....with wings' whose loss of an item is inconsequential.
To find a precious item, even only one of a pair, is still a treasure.
