The prompt for this gratitude journal entry is as follows: Sketch or illustrate your appreciation for having enough money to cover your basic needs, including the shoes on your feet.
(First published in 2016 at the beginning of my art journey. I am so happy that I started sharing my work early because this website is now a record of the progress I have made over the years. I encourage you to keep a journal and paint, sketch, draw…from the most mundane, even if it is shoes, to the more complex and challenging objects. The end result isn’t as important as being in the moment!)
I don’t need to be convinced to draw shoes as I have closets full of them.
It used to be that I wore elegant shoes to work, you know the kind that elongate the legs, and make a woman feel like a million bucks.
My poor feet ached. Fancy shoes and teaching are not a good match since the job requires lots of standing, and walking, and running up and down stairs. I breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the working day, when my sore feet would slide into my comfy, cozy slippers.
So the shoes I have illustrated are the most sensible ones, the ones I appreciate the most, the ones I wear during the summer, with the exception of my one special pair of high-heeled shoes. I just cannot part with them even though I have not had an occasion to wear them for the last ten years.
Manolo Blahnik has said that “shoes are the quickest way for women to achieve instant metamorphosis.”
That might explain the many shoe shopping trips over the years with a like-minded friend to find just the right pair of shoes when we both have closets full of them back home.
