Velvet Shoe c. 1937

Gerald Transpota’s painted this very charming ‘Velvet Shoe’ sometime between 1855 and 1995. It’s funny how a humble shoe can become so captivating on paper. Just think about how this image came into being: the artist looking intently at the shoe, mixing those dusky reds and blacks, trying to capture the tassels just so. There’s a real sense of care in the way the textures are rendered, a slight softness to the form that makes it almost dreamlike. I wonder what Transpota was thinking about as they painted, what drew them to this particular object? To me, painting is a conversation, and this piece feels like the artist chatting with the history of still life and the simple beauty of everyday things. It reminds me that we're all just adding our voices to this big, ongoing dialogue, inspired by each other across time.