The Slippah Series

The rubber slipper, perfect footwear for the tropics, for the beach, the pool, the spa, the backyard BBQ. Not perfect for hiking or adventure. Exploring just 12 feet off the path into rough lava could doom a brand new pair of flip-flops in less than five minutes. Easy to have these mild forms of foot protection blow out and leave you hopping across a sharp-edged fractured lava landscape bleeding back in the direction of your car or nearest beach or sidewalk. Worse yet is when it happens in the dark someplace you don't know where.

Foot-Loose In Paradise (F.L.I.P.)
1986 - 1999

This emblematic footgear became symbolic to me of humanity's interface with our planets surface, an experience shared by all who come this way. A common denominator of our existence and a simple footnote to civilization. A theme any one, any where or when, could identify with immediately acknowledging bipedal locomotion and also the feeling that no matter where you go or how hard it was to get there, some one else has already been there before. 'Deja Shous' I think its called.
At first it seemed like poetic justice, emphasizing and uplifting such a mundane item and everyday occurrence to a level of artistic awareness. And then it began to mutate..

Leaving the frame

The first thing to go was the frame. After exploring 2 dimensional renderings of slippahs in variety of environments, colors and compositions. I had also begun photo documentation of examples in the field supplementing the rare specimens I had gathered for the ultimate dirty broken lost slipper collection. I became more involved with the actual shape,-the foot outline, the sole of the flip-flop in all its worn-out destroyed beauty and function. Initially the slipper had been the subject of the artwork, a drawing or painting of rectangular proportions suitable for traditional framing upon completion.

Multi-Media

Now the slipper exchanged places-becoming the frame, but this didnt last. Next the frame concept gave way to the slipper and its shape defined the image in 3 dimensional space. These were mixed media works which could hang on a wall in any direction, cast shadows and incorporated wood, liquid rubber, silicon, cement board, glass marbles, mortar and more in their construction.

Even farther out-of-da-box

The broken flip-flop shape inspired a design for a pool/beach lounge chair and a small item which I thought was a toy but eventually turned out and proved itself to be an adult curiosity and possible massage tool. Hundreds of these adorable wheeled slipper characters were sold to a never seen nothing like it before in my life tourists and art thou ridiculous true believers.

Seen it all now..

I remember hiking 2 hours 1 way to a remote bay and flip flop flotsam had arrived before me without the effort, without wheels, and without eyes. Also like his predecessor this guy floats. I had a Footloose Re-release Party off the tip of South Point in 1997, freeing it back into its natural environment after years in captivity. (Additionally there was a 3-legged 4' fiberglass flip-flop table at the entry for a while. It got lost. Nobody missed it. Not everyone could relate as fully as myself to my journey of sole searching discoveries.)