A Collection of Women's Shoes and Their Meanings

 This weekend I interviewed some women about the shoes that they wore. I'm going to be talking to more on Monday and assembling a small book about them to have for my review

slide guide text

researched and recorded all the info needed to get to each slide. found a handful of "fun facts" on adirondack history

example of "fun fact"

watershed divide: stream on the north end of avalanche lake directs atlantic bound water via st. lawrence seaway and stream on the south end via hudson river

example of "how to get there"

slide brook north fork

ascend drainage at slide brook lean-to. bear left at split

...

My group finalized the postcards so I printed them Friday 

I also practiced binding my big book/I think finalized that layout

And I redid my layout for my mini books to a larger font with less text on each page

I've been thinking about how I'm going to lay everything out more too.

I know I want the shelves to be very simple and painted the same color white as the walls. The lengths are just ideas for now, I need to get everything finished before I finalize what size the shelves are. But I am thinking of having the "h_b_t" as  a 3 feet long piece of vinyl and the text on the wall is 100 pt type that runs 12 feet tall (height of walls) and about 4 feet wide. I need to finalize the vinyl ASAP because he needs time to get it printed. 

 

 I've been working on is my artist statement and how I want it displayed. I want it on a postcard type thing with the Marcel proust quote, I spent most of the time on that focusing on the language and tried to incorporate my original writing with a suggestion John gave me. I want a simple layout and text, but I need to decide if I want business cards as well and what information should go on the artist statement cards (right now I just have the quote, my statement, name and website)

And lastly I have been tinkering around with creating my website (www.rwallacedesign.com) I want it to be as good as i can make it by my show so that people can take my cards and visit my website if they're interested

Shoe Collection

I decided to show my most "extreme" shoes.

1. Thigh High Black Boot - Bought for a costume and only worn for that costume. Possibly my most uncomfortable pair of shoes, but it takes several hours of being at a con with concrete floors and people stepping on my feet to get that far. 

2. Red Platform Heels with Gold Chains - My newest purchase. The woman who runs The Golden Hangar knows me pretty well and held onto them for me because she knew I would like them. She also bumped down the price a little bit for me.

3. Shark Platform Heels - I couldn't resist buying them when I saw them online. 

4. Bodyline Pink Lolita Shoes - These are so comfortable. They're really cute, but I haven't worn them in a long time because they have some scuff marks that I haven't been able to get out.

5. Rhinestone Encrusted Black Platform Heels - Once again bought for a costume. These are so much more comfortable than they look. I wish I could wear them everywhere, but I don't want them to get damaged or worn out when I need them for a costume.

Disassembly

Tonight I tacked disassembling this shoe's partner: 

After struggling with the shoe for a few hours I managed to get it into almost all of it's separate parts. Unfortunately I was not able to disassemble the heel, as it was solid acrylic that did not want to let go of the patent leather around it, or the heel. 

I didn't honestly realize there were so many pieces that went into a shoe like this.

Tragically a good friend nobly gave his life in this process. RIP Seam Ripper. You will be missed.

'motto'

we had briefly talked about picking out the best use of habit to have as like.. my 'motto' for my show and I spent some time going through William James and decided these three quotes were the ones I liked best:

• We must be careful not to give the will so stiff a task as to insure its defeat at the very outset but,
 provided one can stand it, a sharp period of suffering, and then a few time, is the best thing to aim at, whether in giving up a habit like that of opium, or in simply changing one's hours of rising or of work.
• It is well known how much finer and quicker the painter is in discriminating colors and illuminations than one whose eye is not trained in these matters; how the musician and the musical-instrument maker perceive with ease and certainty differences of pitch and tone which for the car of the layman do not exist; and how even in the inferior realms of cookery and wine-judging it takes a long habit of comparing to make a master.
• The habits of an elementary particle of matter cannot change (on the principles of the atomistic philosophy), because the particle is itself an unchangeable thing; but those of a compound mass of matter can change, because they are in the last instance due to the structure of the compound, and either outward forces or inward tensions can, from one hour to another, turn that structure into something different from what it was.

But, last semester I had found these other two that I like way more:

"Success is a product of great habits, birthed by great disciplines, repeated day in day out."

Wale Oladipo

"The time which we have at our disposal everyday is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains."

Marcel Proust

At first I thought that I should stick with a William James quote since that's what the majority of the show will be, but now I'm planning on re-doing my process book and including it into the show and I think it would be ok to have a quote from someone else. I'm thinking of making it into a poster or displaying it somehow. ideas?

And to display it I was thinking of having something similar to this: 

where the text is on one page of paper (currently it's the paragraph that includes the quote by Proust) and then having another, blank page over it and cut out the area to reveal the quote. Since I've been working with taking words out of their text and using them in my own way, I thought that it was appropriate to show this quote in this way. (....also right now the background looks gray to me - it's supposed to be white) i'll print out a smaller scale version for class

fascinating read on adirondack geology

http://written-in-stone-seen-through-my-lens.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-adirondack-mountains-of-new-york.html