Spruce Pine artist Dori Settles casts shoes
Cinderella may have lost her slipper, but Dori Settles has found nearly 60 — and turned them all to glass. A Spruce Pine artist with a background in lost-wax casting, Settles began experimenting with the pâte de verre technique in 2021, developing a way to create hollow, translucent forms instead of heavy, solid sculptures. The result is Shoes: Storytellers of Our Lives, a traveling exhibition on view this fall at Toe River Arts. Each cast glass shoe is paired with a personal narrative from the person who once wore it, collected through an open call that drew responses from across the country. Together, they speak of first dates, daily routines, hard jobs, and lives in motion. Not every piece emerged from the kiln as expected, but Settles embraced those surprises. As she notes in a press release, the shoe taught her the “biggest lesson for an artist — to embrace and celebrate imperfection.”
Shoes: Storytellers of Our Lives: September 20-October 18; Reception: Friday, September 26, 5-7pm
Toe River Arts, Kokol Gallery / 269 Oak Ave., Spruce Pine / toeriverarts.org