Vincent van Gogh’s Clogs

Sure as the stars shine, if you dare to wear a new pair of shoes or shirt or pants to just “do a little bit of painting” paint gets on you!!  You can count on it as one can count on the sun to rise. So what is an artist to do? Why paint shoes of course.

While Gauguin and van Gogh were working out their painting arrangements and personal relationship in Arles, Gauguin received word that he had sold a painting. Returning to the Yellow House to relay his good news to Vincent, he noted a lack of enthusiasm coming from Vincent.  Slighted feelings and disappointment sparked a spat of temper, Gauguin yelling, “You are jealous of me. You are jealous because I have sold a painting!”

To which Vincent replied, “Me, why should I be jealous if you sell a painting. It doesn’t matter to me if you sell a painting.  May I have your clogs?” 

Vincent van Gogh painted his share of wooden clogs and leather shoes during his artistic career.  To him shoes were another form of still life; perhaps more importantly a metaphor for the difficulties of the artist’s path.  “Because I go about in wooden shoes, I shall be able to manage.” Vincent appreciated worn clothing as “having the imprint of life.”  Shoes that became well-worn were a testament to trail blazing, walking in virgin territory, which is how he viewed himself as an artist. At various stages of his artistic career, he painted an “autobiography” of shoes that he had worn, from stiff gray wooden clogs, to leather shoes and boots, malleable, broken down, scuffed, with worn bulges and cavernous interiors. Each painting was evidence of the remarkable, visionary path that Vincent walked as an artist.

I look down at the latest splotch of paint on my shoes and realize that I, too, am on an artistic path and perhaps it would be good to document my own trailblazing.