Artist Statement - Gracie Gehring

I knew that I wanted the artist I chose to be unique or have a stand-out factor. I never knew of Gustav Klimt until I began researching artists for Step Up. His style of geometric shapes, gold, and colors intrigued me. His painting, “The Kiss,” portrays love and beauty. The beauty of the painting is found in the kiss on the woman’s cheek and the flowers while the detail and wow-factor is seen in the man's robe and the woman’s dress. I knew this was the piece I wanted to paint on my shoes. I’m not entirely sure what my style is as an artist, but his style appeals to me. It is a style that was both doable for my experience and challenging to get every detail. Gustav Klimt’s Golden Age was what really made me feel like I chose the right artist. His gold leaf really added the wow-factor to his paintings and created some very unique works. Originally, I wasn’t planning on filling the shoe with as much of Gustav’s works and style as I ended up doing, but I began to understand his style and added my own style while painting these shoes.

Looking at the front view of the shoes, the tongues of the shoes are the main feature. This is Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss.” The right of the shoe features the woman who is being kissed by her lover as they lie in the garden. The left shoe shows the pattern of the man’s robe. At the rim of the shoes is the very garden that the two lovers are lying on. Continuing with the left shoe, the outside features circles full of flowers, which are the same circles that can be spotted on the woman’s dress. Reaching the back of the shoe, we can see another work by Klimt titled “The Tree of Life.” Klimt’s “Tree of Life” features more geometric shapes and colors, but on this shoe, we can see the outline of the tree itself. Wrapping around to the inside of the left shoe, there is a strip of flowers, the same ones by the woman’s arm at the tongue of the shoe. Looking at the right shoe, the back and sides of the shoe have the painting “Freya’s Tears.” The inside of the shoe shows Freya’s curly hair as well as the same circles of flowers seen on the left shoe. Then, the outside shows Freya as she cries a golden tear. Interestingly enough, this painting was not done by Gustav Klimt, but rather by another artist as they aimed to replicate his style. This painting is often credited as a Klimt and looking at the shoes, you can see how similar the style is to his actual works. Not to mention, the incorporation of gold matches Klimt’s Golden Age. To the right of Freya, there are circles that match the circles to the right of the woman’s body in “The Kiss.” The tongues of the shoes really connect the two shoes, but overall, you can see the connection of the paintings as you look around the shoes and see patterns that can be found elsewhere. The yellow of the shoes stand out just like the yellow and gold of Klimt’s “The Kiss.” Additionally, the bronze, silver, and gold add shine and attention to the shoes. Finally, the intricate detail and patterns require you to take a closer look at everything.