All the work is connected. People know me for my shoe paintings because they can relate to them: they say, ‘oh you’re the shoe artist’. I had given up painting shoes for a good while because I wanted to move on to something else, but I had a commission recently to paint a pair of wedding shoes and this has renewed my interest in doing more shoes. I’m not a huge collector of actual shoes, I don’t have loads of them tucked under my bed, but I use the shape of the shoe as a template. The inspiration comes from actually doing the work – the magic bits and the colour combinations. Strong colours and the way that they amalgamate are consistent in all my work.
There is a connection between the tree paintings and the shoes because there’s a similar thing going on. They seem miles apart but they’re not. I suppose it’s like infusing nature into the shoe. With a tree it’s more free-flowing because there are wider parameters. A shoe is limited, but that limitation really works because I have to stay within the boundaries.
I progress and change, and then the work changes, but it always seems to know where it’s going.
Emma Barone ©2014
Emma Barone - Art Blog 