Surrealist Artist Creates Shoes With Faces

Gwen Murphy’s shoe sculpture series was aptly named “Foot Fetish”. Each pair has faces implemented where the foot should go, making for a surreal, if a bit unsettling effect. 

Murphy paints the faces so that each one has a recognizable personality and emotion, which matches its shoe model. Sometimes they look at each other and communicate, other times they’re looking away.

The artist says she likes working with different types of objects she finds and shoes are just one of those. To create her unique pieces, Murphy uses clay and acrylics. She generates the images from surrealist techniques like blind contour or collage.  

According to Murphy, she’s interested in the vulnerability of humans and in pathos and humor that arise from this vulnerability. She sees those as complementary ways of exploring the subject of interest. Her goal is to create pieces that are both expressive and surprising.  

Her eerie shoes sometimes seem like they have a life of their own. Take a closer look! 

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In progress: suede booties . . . (SOLD! 7/26/2020)

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