Published: Wednesday, 10th June, 2009 11:36am

Virginia art students get Footloose!

Have you ever thought about making your own shoes? Shoes are familiar and recognisable. A shoe is a necessary and functional object, but can be decorated, coloured, shaped and crafted in hundreds of different ways; shoes are sculptural pieces of art.

Using this as a starting point, second year art, craft and design students at Virginia College began designing and making their own shoes. The brief was simple and allowed the students to be creative - to design and make a papier-mâchè shoe based on a man-made or natural object inspired by the work of artist, Emma Barone.

Teacher Nollaig Tynan encouraged them to generate a work that could be exhibited alongside the works shown in a prepared classroom presentation of work by artist, Emma Barone.

They discussed interpretations of what could constitute a shoe - high heels, sandals, skates, flippers... They used a variety of materials and explored many options and ideas before settling on one idea. Each student used their sketchbook to work out ideas and created a original pieces with outstanding elements of art and design principles.

Students were urged to use the media of their own choosing, which included mixed media, collage, papier-mâchè, drawing, painting and construction. Following this they brainstormed possible construction methods and negotiated design plans. Work was carefully and neatly completed with pride.

Design plans were finalised and their shoes became various fruits and vegetables, animals, flowers, mechanical objects and more!

Further exploration of the project theme Footloose was displayed when each student created their own paintings of their shoe designs and exhibited their work in the college for parents, staff and other students to enjoy.