Travelogue of an Artistic Mind - Jen Worden

 *phew* … some art pieces do NOT want to be born, creating havoc and problems and aggrevation through its entire journey out into the world. This was one of those pieces.

A bit of history, on a yahoo assemblage list I belong to, one of the members posted her contribution to the Global Shoe Project created by Stella Meades, a Canadian ceramic artist who in 1996 created 1001 ceramic shoes for an installation entitled "footnote", a

…visual illustration of numbers and facts that are difficult to comprehend intellectually.

Earlier this year Stella began to think about how the present war would affect the children:

…my thoughts turned to questions of what war-affected children might need in order to begin to heal.  At this time I had close to 900 shoes.  Rather than make this a solitary project, I decided to invite other people to help. I sent interested people a shoe and asked them to make something to hold, cover, or contain it that would symbolize an alleviation of the loss or damage the shoe represented.

I contacted Stella asking if she had any extra shoes, I would love to participate in the project. She generously obliged and my finished contribution - winging its way back west - is pictured above.

I knew I wanted to create a house for the "shoe" and even though it was obviously a child’s shoe, I needed a more obvious face to identify with. I had a broken china doll that would work perfectly - blank eyes so the viewer can fill in the blank and of course, a statement on how nations are turning a blind eye to the families and children affected as the war continues on. I also knew that whatever the house would end up being, I wanted it to be patched, not perfect, just like Real Life.

I used molding paste to glue the face into the shoe as well as fill in any gaps, first gessoed then painted with blackened bronze metal paint which I also applied to the entire shoe both for consistency as well as thinking about bronzed baby shoes and all those associated emotions - love, childhood, proud parents, home, family etc. I found the perfect wood box to fit the shoe/child and scouted around trying to find the right embellishment as the box was very plain. In a box of frames I found just the right dentil work I was after but it was made of plastic. Herein begins the aggrevating part!

I had to cut the frame in order to fit it to the box - a few cuts of the mitre saw? no problem! - but in using the saw the plastic chipped quite badly. Still. No worries, I thought, nothing a bit of filler can’t fix. Heh. Hindsight, right? Not quite so easily as it turns out. I spent the better part of a week, painting then gluing, nailing then gluing, touching then gluing this frickin’ frame. I did however learn some valuable lessons:

1. The best glue for plastic?  5 minute epoxy.
2. Always reinforce corners on frames that will be taking unknown abuse.
3. Always glue AND nail those reinforced corners.
4. Use the right product for the right job. ie. NOT wood filler for plastic. duh!
5. Think things through before blindly carrying on. 5 minutes of forethought reduces HOURS of frustration and idle drying time.

Having said all of that, I still thoroughly like the rough/patchiness of the frame. It suits the theme and my intent I think.

The brass "house" piece gave me equal aggrevation mainly because of the frame and it’s lack of sturdiness. But again, I do like how it turned out. The "world" charm imparts a more global viewpoint and again the timeworn metal shows that the reality and the ideal are so far apart, that any advancement is hard won.

I’m glad I was able to participate in Stella’s project , the shoes are  being shown in various locations in Manitoba and British Columbia. As the shoes are sold others replace them. Unfortunately, too similar to the children of war.