From left: High school students Nathale Keith, Cassady Cowan, Rowen Wiederspohn, Paige Baggen, teacher Tasha Morse and Sophia Hagelman worked together to turn two pairs of Vans shoes into works of art. If the shoes are chosen as winners in the nationwide Vans Custom Culture art contest, the school could win up to $50,000.
One pair of shoes entered by Wrangell High School art students is painted red with black form line drawings of a wolf and a raven and adorned with beadwork symbolizing Alaska's state flower. The cuffs are lined with fur to create a modern moccasin, teacher Tasha Morse said.
Art students are decking out their deck shoes.
Wrangell High School was one of 250 schools across the country picked to participate in the Vans Custom Culture art contest and could win up to $50,000.
It was an opportunity that almost didn't happen.
"We were supposed to get the shoes mid-February. (Vans) sent them but they got lost," said art teacher Tasha Morse. She contacted the company, which told her to keep a lookout for the shoes. If the two pairs didn't arrive, they would send replacements. Eventually, the shoes were found. The package had been sitting in the school office and no one knew where it was meant to go.
"I had a minor freak-out. We had three weeks less to work on them," Morse said.
According to the contest website, the competition was created to inspire creativity in high school students and to "bring attention to diminishing arts education budgets." Oftentimes, if schools are looking to cut budgets, arts programs are some of the first to go.
Morse said $50,000 would go a long way to sustaining Wrangell's art program. Second- through fifth-place winners will each receive $15,000, which would be helpful as well.
"The money would help us alleviate the huge cost of just getting items here," she said. "Shipping is very often cost-prohibitive, even on smaller items. We are in need of more acrylic paints. I would love to get more glass for mosaics and stained glass. We have a small list started on items that we would like to get."
Themes for the shoe designs need to focus on hometown pride, street culture, action sports and art, while embracing the Vans "Off the Wall" legacy.
Vans began in 1966 in Anaheim, California, made by the Van Doren brothers and their partners on their store premises. The canvas deck shoe skyrocketed in popularity in the '70s when skateboarders started using them because of the sticky rubber sole.
Students Paige Baggen, Sophia Hagelman, Rowen Wiederspohn, Cassady Cowan and Nathale Keith collaborated on the project, deciding to adorn one shoe with Tlingit form line art, fur and buttons, while the other would be covered in paintings of Wrangell.
"It was fun," said Baggen, a junior. "I don't really paint in the style (we used) very often, so it was fun to scroll through my camera roll and find as many iconic symbols of Wrangell as possible."
After finding photos for reference, the artists narrowed down the scenes, including the view of Woronofski Island and the Fourth of July fireworks. The shoes didn't have to be wearable after designs were applied, Morse said, since they were technically sculptures, but she and the students wanted both pairs to still be wearable.
"The idea with the Indigenous shoe is it's a homage to the Tlingit button blankets," Morse said. "We worked on form line (art). Sophia worked on the first rendition of our form line wolf, then we worked on it to make it uniquely our own."
Hagelman, who created a form line eagle for a senior project painting, said just being able to work as a team and be a part of the project was her favorite aspect.
Morse spoke with Virginia Oliver, who teaches Tlingit language and culture at the school. Oliver suggested a painting a raven on the shoe opposite the wolf to balance the two. There is also blue and yellow beadwork in the shape of Alaska's state flower, the forget-me-not, along the laces. Fur trapped and killed by Wiederspohn was used on the cuffs. An extra $500 could be earned with the use of locally sourced materials like the fur.
"It's a contemporary take on a moccasin with inspiration from button blankets," Morse said.
The designs were submitted at the end of March. Vans will narrow down the entries to the top 50 and announce those on April 25, at which time public voting begins. The top five winners will be announced the week of May 9, with the grand prize winner announced May 16.
"I think we have a pretty good chance of making the top 50," Baggen said. "At that point it's just a matter of rallying our community to vote. The chances are good."
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