Gitty Duncan

Artist Statement

My work is an exploration of form, color and narrative. Often, specific processes or materials will spark an entire project, as they did with these boots. For the lace up boots, ice-dying was the starting point. The free spirit of the West is embodied in the colors and movement of the dyes. For the cowboy boots, the texture and vibrancy of the lizard skin was perfect for recreating orange tones. The lapis blue leather background evokes the endless variety of fruit crate labels from Southern California orchards. I searched for weeks to find the perfect velvety off-white for the orange blossoms. I make use of old-world techniques to build modern and whimsical  interpretations of footwear. The uppers for these boots were made using a variety of hand and machine stitching techniques, along with a little hand embroidery. The soles were completely hand welted and finished using traditional English cordwainer methods.