BOOTS WITH LACES

The 2024 Super Bowl is history.  The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime 25-22.  I didn't have any bets on the game, so watched a rom-com movie with one eye and the game with the other.  I've often wondered where sports teams get their names, like the Chiefs and the 49ers.  I find that the Kansas City Chiefs were named for the mayor of Kansas City in the early 1960s, and his nickname was Chief.   The San Francisco 49ers were named after the prospectors who arrived in Northern California during the 1849 Gold Rush.  

   Van Gogh painted a number of still lifes of shoes and work boots, one of which is Boots With Laces (below).   An acquaintance told how Vincent bought old work shoes at a flea market.  He then walked through the mud in them until they were filthy.  Only then did he feel they were interesting enough to paint. 

Boots With Laces -1886

Who wore these boots?  It looks like someone has just taken them off and set them down.  I'd say they belong to a person of poverty, someone who does hard manual labor, perhaps works on his feet all day in the fields.  Notice how the left bootlace is laced back and forth evenly, while the right bootlace is woven in misplaced holes.  Might the misplaced lace represent man's struggles and confusion?  Might the evenly laced one represent hope?  The left shoe slouches down, like its wearer who bends beneath the burden of poverty.  Whoever wore these boots is tired and worn out.  It's possible that these boots represent Van Gogh's personal life.    

Van Gogh could see the Divine in ordinary objects, opening our eyes to the humblest of things we take for granted.  Shoes tell a story of their wearer.  VG cared about the poor, which he makes obvious.  In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent wrote, "It is good to love as many things as one can.....I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners.  And my mind is driven toward these things with an irresistible momentum.....Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is not as easy as looking at it.  I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream."

Tomorrow we'll take a look at another of his paintings of shoes.  I invite comments with personal opinions.  There is no right and wrong here, which makes it fun.🖌

At 8:45 this morning, little Buffy will be coming to spend the day with us.  She'll be  my Valentine's present.  I'd rather have her than four pounds of chocolates!