Shoes, Scores, and Maps: Tools for a Regenerative Future

Van Gogh’s Celebrated Shoes

Van Gogh painted at least eight oil paintings of well-worn work shoes, portraying an essential tool of a working person. By capturing the unique character of these shoes, he transformed them into valuable masterpieces. The paintings now hang in prominent international museums and collections, where they continue to draw wide-ranging attention from art historians, philosophers, collectors, and people from all over the world.

According to John Berger, a painter who creates images of objects is also, in effect, recreating the sense of the original work that went into them (Berger 90). This suggests that the painting itself refers to the effort and skill involved in making the objects it represents. Van Gogh portrays his own struggles and pays tribute to the manual labor represented in the work shoes.

In contrast to the shoes in Van Gogh’s famous paintings, an Oregon boy’s mended shoes have faded from the visual record. The young cobbler who repaired the shoes of one hundred and fifty inmates remains anonymous, and the story of his work can only be found in Fairview's history documenting the center's operations. 

What is the difference in recognition and value between the boy’s labor and the labor depicted in Van Gogh’s well-known paintings? Van Gogh's painted shoes hang in museums, and the inmates' repaired shoes were worn out through everyday use.

Imagine if Van Gogh, who stayed in a French mental hospital for a year, had lived in Oregon in the early 1900s. Had he been placed at Fairview and had access to paint, he might have painted the boy's mended shoes.

This story is a small effort to remember a child whose work was forgotten. The system he lived in saw his labor as a part of the institution, not as his own contribution. By telling his story, we can push back against that history and give him the recognition he was denied.

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SCORES

A score is a set of open-ended instructions, a proposition, and a tool for participating in collaborative work and shared experiences. In music, a score traditionally serves as a blueprint that guides how a piece should sound and how performers should approach it, providing both structural framework and interpretive possibilities. When someone performs a score, they are an active participant, not a passive audience member. Their participation requires trust and creates interdependence while engaging the senses. Sensory engagement helps people notice much more about their environment. Larry Supnet's paintings and Park McArthur and Constantina Zavitsanos's "care collective" demonstrate how scores can be used as a framework for collaborative and creative practices.