Red Shoe on the Road

Highway 100 / St. Louis Park / MN / 2019

During a major road construction project on Highway 100, in Minneapolis, MN, I saw a red athletic shoe in the middle of a curvy stretch of highway under a railroad viaduct. It was in an area where the traffic bottle-necked. I knew I would never risk my life for that red shoe, but I certainly desired it! In the following week, its shape flattened to the thickness of cardboard after hundreds of tires ran over it. The following Monday, it was gone forever. Red Shoe On The Road is reminiscent of the first stage of my visual experience during a morning commute. Every shoe on the road has some narrative to go along with it. Was there tomfoolery involved, was the shoe absentmindedly left on the roof, or inadvertently kicked out when someone got out of a vehicle? It is the second shoe on the road painting that I have created and the largest 30x48 in the Road Work Series. The leaves are silk oak leaves that I distressed and added painted shadows for a simplified visual experience.

Strange…the mystery of a single shoe on the road