- Bucketfeet CTCM designed by Meryl Phillips
When the new line of Bucketfeet shoes dropped, we applauded the eclectic designs of a few very dynamic Brazilian artists. But we really got juiced when we found out that the one American designer featured in the new line was Oakland artist Meryl Phillips! We caught up with her to discuss her shoe designs, utilitarian art, her East Oakland house renovation and the local art scene.
38th: What inspired you to work with bucketfeet?
MP: I had seen a friend of mine post on Facebook about the launch of bucketfeet a year ago and I’d been doing hand drawn shoes for a little while myself so I was immediately intrigued by the colorful designs. I clicked on the link and was instantly grabbed by how cool it was that Aaron (Firestein, Creative Director of Bucketfeet) had done the same thing. When I started clicking around more and found out the awesome story of how they got started as a business and the completely amazing things they do to support kids by pairing up with great charity organizations, I just absolutely knew I wanted to be a part of it. So I sent an email to Aaron along the lines of, “You’re totally awesome, I know this email is really random, but I like to draw on shoes…” and now I’ve got a pair that they just launched!
Click HERE to see more views and purchase. The CTCM is offered in men’s and women’s styles
38th: What inspired the design of your CTCM shoe?
MP: I really enjoy geometry and one day I was just fiddling around with drawing shapes inside of shapes and I started thinking about Kaleidoscopes and how the shapes and angles interacted with each other and it just grew from there. I’ve also been really into gray lately, so I felt like you can’t really go wrong with classic black, white and gray. A linear design with simple colors can look fun, uncomplicated and dynamic all at the same time.
38th: What mediums do you use?
MP: I use a ton of mediums. In school I concentrated on sculpture and video production, but I also loved the classes I took in ceramics, drawing and photography. At this point, I really like to make art that people use, so I’ve focused on building things. I started making these wood block alphabet abacus baby toys because I knew people who were having kids and I wanted to make them something that lasted, that they could learn from and that looked cool.
My boyfriend and I are renovating our Storybook home in Oakland and I’ve become really aware of the purpose of objects and not wanting to fill places with stuff. I could make art forever, so now the mantra is to make things that can go somewhere and serve something. Through the renovation process I try to be aware of making things as useful and practical as possible and my art has really started to reflect that as we’ve recently gotten into furniture building.
38th: How would you describe your art?
MP: I have a lot of obsessive compulsive tendencies and I enjoy spatial analysis. I really like things to be symmetrical and equal, and in my head I can get tied up with the idea that things should be arranged in a certain kind of way. One time an art therapist walked by some of my work and said that my art was an anxiety binder. At first I was really confused by that, but then I realized that most of the art I create is precise and fanatical. When I made my first pair of hand drawn shoes for my mom she said, “Now I know what it’s like to be in your brain.” It’s weird, people look at patterns I make or my obsessive line drawings when I rearrange floor plans of rooms on graph paper and think I’m crazy, but I find that it’s so intimate and it’s in those moments when all the confusion, frustration or anxiety in my head comes out in a totally calming way filled with rulers, graph paper and color, and it just makes sense.
38th: What is the current landscape for Oakland artists?
MP: Oakland is a great place for artists to be. There are a lot of non-traditional and traditional gallery spaces where people can exhibit their work, and a lot of artists have moved here for cheaper rent outside of San Francisco, which I think it totally great. There are lots of little artist communities all over the place.
But I think part of the problem, with our society in general, is that people like the idea of art but don’t necessarily actually support artists. It is difficult making art and really making something that you feel and then putting it out there and it getting rejected. I was an art major in college I had this feeling (and I think we all did) that somehow after our senior thesis closed and we graduated that we were going to be artists. And it was tough. I submitted work for shows and didn’t get in and it hurt.
I interned at a gallery in San Francisco and saw the business behind “successful” artists and it was a little weird to see because I’d just never thought about what it would take to get a gallery to represent you, write press releases, go to huge art fairs to become a salesman – it was strange to me.
During the Depression in the New Deal there was a program called the Federal Art Project that supported out of work artists who created thousands and thousands of great works and public art. I particularly love the National Park posters that were created during this time and have a few up in my house. In this economy I think it makes becoming an artist and continuing to be creative very hard, so I wish we still had programs like this.
- Hand Painted Chucks by Meryl Phillips
38th: What about Oakland/ Bay Area inspires the artist in you?
MP: I love living in Oakland and being surrounded by absolute diversity; and I mean that on a larger scale that we don’t always think about. We are filled to the brim with: black, white, yellow, orange, purple, green, old, young, rich, poor, city, town, buildings, parks, flatlands, hills, lakes, roads, views, it goes on and on. It is also impossible to deny the issues that our city has and the things we need to overcome. My senior thesis while I was at Mills College dealt with the issues of the divide I-580 creates in Oakland. But I really feel like all the bones are here. Oakland has a rich history and so much going for it and I love being a part of it. I hella love Oakland.
38th: Where can people find your work?
MP: Sadly, most of my work is in my or other people’s houses, haha! I’ve lost interest in wanting to exhibit my work publicly, and that’s probably because I got rejected from so many places when I was getting started. But people wear my shoes, they play with my baby toys, or they use a cabinet we’ve built for them. And that’s totally awesome: I can make something beautiful, and someone uses it.
Meryl Phillips can be reached via email at and you can follow her East Oakland home renovation at http://www.picardyproject.com. To check out more designs from Bucketfeet, click the picture below!
