“Perhaps the alchemists had it backwards, by trying to turn lead into gold. Perhaps they knew deep down that gold can only turn to lead.”

Lead Shoe Series

After years of working on other sculptural projects, I recently tapped into the reservoir of professional experience that had engaged me for nearly two decades: footwear design. I am developing my concept of footwear as art, as a contrast to fashion. This focus, as well as the counterintuitive use of lead as my primary medium, allows shoes to be seen symbolically from a fresh perspective.

I work with lead for its malleability, its archetypal and psychological resonance, its danger, weight, beauty, its protective qualities, its recyclability, its permanence. These pieces are made using mostly traditional shoemaking techniques. Starting with a concept I create the last (form on which the shoe is made) from plaster, draft the upper pattern in paper, then cut and often sew the parts by hand. The soles are cut and shaped from lead and/or wood.

Through the use of lead I aim to expose the inherent contradictions of the fashion industry in our extravagant, consumerist lifestyle which has been shown to make “a sizeable contribution to climate change” (McKinsey Global Institute), literally weighing us down in so many ways. Unless we adopt a more conscious approach to fashion design and consumption, our consumer behavior will drive carbon emissions and pollution far beyond the sustainable limit.

This work highlights the ways that style can assert, or hide, one’s inner nature, sensually, or grotesquely, even as it offers cover from physical and psychological challenges, often becoming symbolic of a person’s fears and insecurities, or exhibitionism and daring, while having the potential to threaten or to protect.

Alchemists viewed all things as embodied with universal spirit, seeing lead as a prime material with an androgynous nature, both hostile and a purifier. Lead, with its dark and secret nature, carried all the energy of its own transformation. The medieval alchemists, as the pioneers to modern chemistry, attempted to transform lead into gold. Similarly, art has the potential to transform the ordinary into the sublime.