canvas and markers
For Christmas I gave a pair of white canvas keds to my daughter-in-law with the promise to art them up. Was side tracked until we got the right size. Had to work hard on ideas and finally came up with SpeeDee, Statue of Liberty, Track/High Jump & personal best at TTU, Seattle,Knoxville, Crossfit Knights logo, kettle bells, Bailey and bigfoot. Seems like a lot to fit into a shoe but that’s why I call them “Life Shoes.” Only white left from the original canvas is the sign’s background held by SpeeDee (the first McDonald’s mascot before Ronald… figured that was a better choice than a big Ronald on her toes…plus SpeeDee makes for a good conversation). Can’t see on these shots but I did a couple of city scapes on the sides of the shoes. Yellow was a favorite color as was teal and grey.
First post of the year, maybe this will get my juices going again…later.
Art by Ken 
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Reblogged this on meems phabulous phinds and commented:
wow, these are the awesomest!!
Thank you for those kind words…we all need shoes that speak about our lives…lol
These are great! I think I’d have to wear them as slippers as I wouldn’t want to get the lovely art work dirty.
My wife has a pair that has been washed (no bleach or heavy soaps) and aired dried, 3 times and the colors haven’t faded or runned. Using quality inks and spraying with good acrylic matte finishes seems to have done the trick. I guess to a point it is fun wearing the art and getting the looks and conversations, at some point the shoes wuld get retired for display. Appreciate your comments Isabelle, thanks.
Love the shoes, love happy shoes, love you custom-painted them for your daughter law. Love to know of another artistic talent at work here in Toronto! (and thank you for the Likes on some of my recent posts)
Love the comments Penny…not sure I understood you right, but I am a transplanted Kansasan now in middle Tennessee…i hear Toronto is a big artistic town.
Clearly you have the creativity bug within and those canvas keds do look special….
What has stopped you from penning some posts in the interim?
Shakti
The creative bug hasn’t been active lately, just some sketches and simple drawings…i have been taking a boatload of photos, but i typically don’t share them…late summer and early fall normally gets my juices going again…appreciate the follow and comment, thank you
The guy on the shoes scares me a little bit–sort of a cross between the KoolAid guy and the Monopoly Robber Baron figurine.
LOL…McDonalds doesn’t always have the most adorable characters in history of their ADs. But SpeeDee could grow on ya over time, as long the sign he holds has a positive message !
Hi Ken,
Thank you for stopping by and following ‘the insanity’! I really love the shoes and the story behind them. I look forward to seeing more of your unique ideas and talent 😉
J
Gorgeous shoes! Jeez but you really are a very talented man.
ahhh shucks…appreciate it,thank you.
Love those. I saw a cool pair on Pinterest a while back that were done with the Bewitched character. Wanted them bad but they were custom. Thank you for following my Blog too, really appreciate that 😀
Awesome! I art-si-fied a pair like that by painting toes with nail polish. Got compliments everywhere I went.
Nice and more of a conversation piece.
Those shoes are cool! What a nice one-of-a-kind gift 🙂
short of giving a painting or drawing that was my goal…and you can wear them in public.
She must so love those shoes! positively prance when she wears them…
Reblogged this on Septian Online.
Reblogged this on Julie Patchouli.
i have some friends that would love these shoes. Too fancy for me but they are ‘tres cool’. Yay!
How fun is that! Love them!!
Those are really cool. My inner ski-bum loves doodled gear.
What an thoughtful, one-of-a-kind gift. How awesome.
Appreciate it.
Wowsers!! Very cool…what did u use to mark with…if you care to share;)
I use Sharpie Stained and Marvy brand fabric markers…i use matte acrylic spray to seal, not sure I need it but worry about H2O. Makes shoes a little stiff but after some wear they get soft. Thanks for the WOWSERS.
Welcome back. Looking forward to more of your wonderful work.