Today’s interview was originally posted by Anna, self proclaimed shoeaholic. Everyday she shares her love and endless joy of shoes in her blog Shoe Smitten. In this particular post she shares a interview with an artist Mark Schwartz. He has been designing shoes in Italy for his entire career. He also turns shoes into art. Visit his website and blog. You will want to dig around a bit, he is giving away one of his works in a contest. Good Luck and may the best shoe lover win.
If you’re a shoe lover (and you should be if you’re reading this), then you’ll love Mark Schwartz’s work! Check out this short, candid interview I scored with him yesterday:
Q: How did Andy Warhol encourage you and influence your work?
A: I met Andy Warhol thru Roger Vivier, was working as Vivier’s assistant and one day Warhol arrives at the Vivier office! Well Warhol was a bit shy but he did sit me down many times over the next year and change, he made monthly visits to the Vivier office to promote Interview magazine,drop off a copy and chat a bit.
We began to talk about shoe design and i was doing these artistic doodles of shoes in different “poses” very fluid and such, Warhol was the one who pushed me to keep drawing the shoes this way , i told him i wanted to paint the shoe as an art form, so he was very positive and nice to me about what i wanted to do, really if it was not for him i would have never have kept doing what i am doing now.
Q: Do you have a favorite shoe fashion icon? Who?
A: My favorite shoe icon is Vivier of course, i was lucky and i mean lucky to be chose by him and work with him for so many years. I love what he created and what he will always influence in modern day shoe design he set the pace for Blahnik, Louboutin, and all who follow.
Q: What is your favorite thing about high heels? What gives them life?
A: High heels have there own personality! They speak without saying a thing. If you look at some of my paintings you can see the high heel in different moods ! High heels on a woman well ,again there is not just one word that describes that look but the life comes from both the shoe itself and the movement of the woman’s body,her personality her body language!
Read about Mark’s inspiration and the rest of the interview here.
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