Keith Haring Customs

Marking the beginning of quarantine in March of 2020, I found myself confronted with time. Now, how to use this time was a bit of a tougher question and how to use it well was even more tough. I began to watch youtube videos of an artist who would paint Nike Airforce 1’s and I was instantly hooked. I dug around in my room and found an older pair of white lace up vans that would be perfect for experimenting with. The inspiration for the design of shoes came directly from past work of Keith Haring, the New York based street artist, who happened to be my favorite artist at the time. I was inspired by his bold colors and the original characters that he produced.

This project opened a gateway into an avenue of art that I still pursue heavily today and have now evolved from painting shoes for myself to now taking commissions for custom painted shoes. Each pair that I produce brings exposure which has allowed me to work on other projects, collaborations, and commissions or private clients, companies, and church organizations.

Detour?

“where did you get a detour sign from??”

.

I had recently started promoting my custom promoted shoes when I received a direct message from a potential client with a slightly different idea in mind. He had received a metal detour sign and had been pondering over what to do with it. He saw my work that I had promoted and was intrigued. I was simply told that I had free reign as far as the design. Artists dream of being commissioned to produce an original design so I was very excited to work on this new type of canvas and eagerly accepted.

The process for this started by taking photographs of my own hands in the position that I desired and then sketching out those photographs. I then transfered those physical drawings into a digital graphic rendering (shown above) which was a new medium at the time for me. This helped me to be able to work with colors and figure out the style of painting that I wanted that is seen in the final piece.