Kathlyn Leighton

Kathlyn Leighton received a 2003 GAP to defray material costs and allow for studio time on Shoe Stories, an ongoing project wherein beaded mosaics take the form of shoes and thereby visualize a story. “The first goal of this project is to identify with the stories represented and to stimulate the viewers’ own personal memories. Another goal is to broaden public awareness towards a non-traditional medium — beads as art. Art that is defined by the vision it represents not the medium representing it.” Drawn from verbal stories, Leighton first works on paper and then designs a shoe pattern that is, in turn, fitted to the shoes. And then the labor-intensive application of beads begins.