Kate and I met through the art community at Harvest and quickly became friends. There’s something about the way artists connect—through shared experiences, mutual inspiration, and the stories woven into the fabric of our lives. For Kate, one of those stories is told through a pair of well-worn Converse sneakers.
Kate’s Converse journey began somewhere around the sixth grade. She doesn’t remember exactly what inspired her to buy that first pair—perhaps a picture of Kurt Cobain—but they quickly became her “signature” shoe. Worn with every outfit, they made her feel effortlessly cool and artsy. Over the years, they became more than just footwear; they became an extension of herself.
Converse sneakers. Chuck Taylors. Black and white. Low tops. This is probably her fourth or fifth pair of the exact same shoe since middle school. While she’s branched out a little in adulthood, trading them out for Docs now and then (because, as she puts it, she’s old enough to need the arch support), her Chucks still make her feel like the version of herself who has always been. They somehow bring back the confidence she had in high school, connecting her to who she was and making her feel at home in her own skin.
These shoes have taken her everywhere. They’ve traveled across multiple states and countries—Jamaica, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico—but more importantly, they’ve carried her from adolescence into adulthood. She was an art student, a theater nerd, a bit of a scene kid, and these shoes fit into every part of her life. They’ve walked her into an insane amount of concerts and shows, stood with her backstage, and bore witness to the creation of some of her largest works of art. She stepped onto her college campus for the first time in these Converse. She was wearing them when she found out she was pregnant at nineteen, staring down at her feet, wondering what the hell she was going to do. A year later, she bought her daughter a tiny pair of her own.
Kate’s journey in her Converse is far from over. She continues to wear them while she paints, trying to get her art career off the ground. She hopes they’ll carry her into more growth as an artist, onto more trips, and into new adventures with her kids and her soon-to-be husband. To her, these shoes are a symbol of quality time and memory-making. They’ve been part of so many moments, big and small, and she hopes to continue making memories in them for years to come.
It’s amazing how something as simple as a pair of shoes can hold so much meaning. For Kate, her Converse are more than just sneakers—they are a thread woven through the story of her life, a reminder of where she’s been, who she is, and where she’s going.
