My red shoes - artefacts of a child who had a mother

You may think that the work I make is generally just illustrations of places I have been. Views of places that I have loved and visited and that is  about it. Well, there is other works I make that though seemingly simplistic, hold a lot more depth and content than would first appear. Take these little red shoes. They are currently at my exhibition at Alfred East Art Gallery, Kettering in the "Views and Shoes" exhibition that closes this Saturday. 

These shoes belonged to me when I was a little child, probably about three. I still have them... in my "precious" biscuit tin in the loft. They are artefacts of proof that actually as a small child I did have a mother that would have put these on. You see, when you have a death of a mother as a child - I was five - there are things you hold onto to make sense of it. Artefacts that prove that she actually did live once. They are the things I would fundamentally save from a fire... that and my photos.

For the exhibition "Views and Shoes" I wanted to make pieces based on them to link to my past history and my connection with the shoe cobbling trade. My father was a cobbler as was my father before that so shoes and leather seem to be part of my DNA!  Below are my fathers words describing his father and his cobbling workshop in the village. Its tiny I know.... I will do a transcript very soon and post on here so you can read it properly.