Last night Josie had hauled about half of the shoes they collected and cleaned up. I was amazed on how much they were able to stuff an SUV full of shoes. I think we unloaded about 15 bags full of shoes. My living room was literally filled with shoes, shoes, shoes. Afterwards, as I pondered after unloading, I couldn’t help but think about the shoes, and where they originated from. There is history in these shoes, someone had worn them previously, and maybe had gone the distance with them. I would imagine people wearing these shoes and going places. Perhaps some of the shoes have also gone the distance, which is like my story below. With the project we are doing, we hope to give new life to each pair, and give it to someone who will add more distance to them. We hope to help document them from their transition of ownership and its final stages of life, per say. We hope the receiving end will find them useful and make their lives a little easier, one step at a time.
Russo Shoe Story: I myself am I big fan of shoes and distance. Years back, I was a proud owner of a pair of New Balance which I had purchased back in the early 2000. These shoes where a part of my life for several years, and have been to places along with stamps on my passport. The same pair of shoes has traveled with me to 4 different continents. It has seen a fair share of adventure, rugged terrain, night life, and tranquil. I gave my shoes a final good bye when I was in Guatemala, at Tikal in 2003 I gave them one last salud and took a picture of the pair with a famous ruin, which coincidently I was trying to mimic a cover of a Lonely Planet cover book. It finally reached its destination in Costa Rica, which I left them behind. I never really connected with any of my shoes my shoes before, until, I realized the length and foot prints those shoes have been through. It makes an interesting story to my own travel journal, and to anyone willing to listen to my stories. See the picture below on the 4 continent shoes.
Moving forward with the project, I hope to make some creative images with them, and to show some of our viewers the distance they have gone through, and the work behind it. If you where one of the donors who gave shoes, and if you see the shoes you donated, make sure to leave us a comment. It would be nice to connect a mystery shoe we received, and to have it connect with its previous owner. Maybe perhaps we will have captured a picture of the new owner. So check back with us for updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment