Reflection

I combined the art of acrylic painting with an interest in fashion to create some unique shoes with a message. Depicted are a happy sea turtle swimming through clear oceans and two jellyfish floating through tranquil waters, but if you pay a little attention, you can see that the laces are decaying. This foreshadows what will eventually happen to the footwear. I painted my art on canvas shoes from a popular fast fashion brand. The sad reality is that clothing and footwear like these are often made in factories with terrible sustainability practices, with the cheaply made shoes themselves shedding synthetic fibers that leach into the ocean. As is the case with most poorly made canvas shoes of this variety, they will be worn for a month or two, then thrown away. What I have done by painting images of thriving and beautiful ocean life on them is created something valuable. Whoever owns these shoes will recognise the value of the art on them, and cherish and protect their footwear. The shoes will last longer, and the owner who buys fast fashion will go through and dispose of footwear less quickly. Meditating on this sparked more ideas for me: one person can’t stop fast fashion, but what if we bought up these cheap shoes, painted them, sold them, then put the money back into the system to improve it? It’s not a flawless idea, but I have hope that the ocean was designed to be resilient!