A Little More Than A Foot

 

 

"A Little More Than A Foot"
This piece has been on my work table (and in my head) for a year or more.  But for some reason, I was not able to finish the piece.
Several weeks ago I read an online article titled A Soleful Life, about a shoe repair shop owner named Guiseppe (Joe) Campieri. I was so touched after reading this story that my motivation to finish this piece was renewed.

  Photo by Adam Williams

This piece itself, is simple, yet complex on many levels. I love the idea of containing things in boxes. I almost always like to cover the boxes with in glass. But for some reason, this one stumped me. The shoe form is full of age earned patina, and surface scratches that come from a lifetime of useful service as a cobbler's shoe form or perhaps even as a shoe stretcher.
I really like the idea of allowing the viewer the ability to touch the nicks and 'scars' the piece has earned in it's lifetime. So I opted for no glass.
The shoe form is contained in a single bottle wine box from the now defunct Quail Ridge Winery. This was another reason I struggled so much with this piece (the Quail Ridge brand is owned by the same guy that makes 2-Buck Chuck wine and in the past few years the company has been involved in some pretty creepy labor and legal issues.)

The vintage shoe form is a G.E. BELCHER STOUGHTON industrial shoe form is made of wood and iron. On the top of the foot form, you can read the words "Oil All Moving Parts".
The inside and back of the box is covered in text from a vintage encyclopedia. I overlaid the back side of the box with pattern tissue. The back is embellished with a found metal roof nail cap, used to hold the shoe form in place. A skirt marker frames and finishes the front of the piece.

I love the richness of the wood in this vintage shoe form, and the stories it can tell.