Yes, I’ve written about it before – my disdain for shoes makes my love of shoes-as-art seem odd and out of place – but it is what it is.

I don’t like to wear them or shop for them but I am fascinated by artistic interpretations of shoes and I own a growing collection of vintage shoe forms that make me smile. It is what it is.

Kate Hopkins-Searle hand builds decorative shoes from thinly rolled slabs of clay. She manipulates sheets of clay over a form, impressing patterns with hand carved stamps, draping the clay and adding pieces that look like fabric frills, bows and rosettes. Each individual shoe takes about 10 hours to make.

“It is difficult to explain my attraction to shoes other than it seems to be something shared with many women and is a theme I have been drawn to since making paper shoes as a child. . .” Kate Hopkins-Searle

“I am fascinated by the details of embroidery and beadwork and the drape and flow of fabrics and recreating the effect of these in clay.” Kate Hopkins-Searle

A peek at her sketchbook here.

Kate Hopkins Searle’s website

I am finally feeling like myself again after almost two weeks of being held hostage by a wicked virus.  A big thank you to Kina Crow – her figurative sculptures gave me the chuckle I needed today as I re-enter the world.

Cleaning Day Again

Playing With Myself
A solitaire game, the object of which is to “jump” and remove each of the 33 mini heads, one, by one…until you have only one little head…(or little voice in your head) remaining

Moody Judy
interchangeable heads – pick your mood and put it on the body, 28″ x 28″

The self-taught artist left a 25-year career as a costume supervisor in the film industry to pursue her art – in this case childlike, figurative objects with a narrative that helps them take on a life of their own.

A Circular Motion
31 ” x 16 ” x 16 ” ceramic, metal, wood turntable

“This is my visual reference to the all the good intentions that so many of us have and the bad, bad habits that seem to over-ride them……continuously…….over and over……in a circular motion.”

The Reason I Don’t Sleep At Night

“I am becoming increasingly intrigued by human behavior. The vast territory of the mind and it’s secret little spaces supply me with endless amounts of inspiration and abundant humor. I feel as though humor is the pressure valve of consciousness, a welcome respite from the austere rulings of that fat -headed bastard the ego, who has a tendency to let us all take our selves & lives a bit too seriously at times. I am also prone explore the regions of the sublime and the strange feelings of completion it is capable of creating.”

 

Kina Crow’s website

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