Barbara Mulleneaux: Sanuk canvas slip-on sneakers, women's size 8 Market Value = Priceless https://www.barbaramulleneaux.com/

From the artist:

Inspiration for "Groovy Shoes"

As I thought about a subject I considered a couple of things. One was a message. I wanted the shoes to carry a message of hope and caring. The second consideration was tone. I wanted the tone of the subject to be whimsical and fun. Life is serious. Illness is serious. Shoes, like tee shirts can be a great opportunity for comic relief and self expression.

As with most of us, I have been consumed by negativity; COVID, politics, financial instability and global warming dominate so much of my waking hours. I was listening to a Mix while working when a John Lennon song played. I got to thinking a lot about the late 60's-70's message of peace, love and hope and that was it! I googled some iconography from that period and got the idea for a VW mini-bus carrying its messages of peace and love. I wanted to tie it to Tucson... "Be Kind" was added.

About the process:

I used Golden OPEN acrylic paints. I thought about the painted mini-buses of the time, how they were painted and who painted them. I put myself into that character and just "went for it". I didn't want to overthink the design. That said, I wanted to use colors representative of that time and tried to make the shoes look spontaneous while carefully considering a finished project! I just wanted them to be "groovy"!

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