You may not see artist Jenn Bennett around town. But you might see her artwork walking around if you look down.
That’s because her medium is shoes.
Jenn is a shoe artist whose canvas is canvas or leather shoes. Most of her customers are “sneakerheads,” she said, people who collect and trade athletic shoes. Others are every-day people who want to wear their favorite cartoon character, movie character or sports team on their shoes.
It’s a way to add fun to something you wear everyday.
“Everybody has lots of T-shirts, but most people only have one or two pairs of shoes,” Jenn said.
It’s an outlet for her artistic talent that has taken off with what is known as shoe culture. People bring the shoes to her they want painted, she said, for themselves or as a gift.
“Some people even order shoes from Amazon and have them shipped to my house,” Jenn said. “I have a stack of shoes I need to work on.”
Jenn grew up on a farm near Clinton, where she liked to spend time drawing. When she was 19, she went to work as a graphic designer at the Clinton Daily Democrat, doing lay-out and ad design.
“I introduced them to In-Design,” she said, referring to the computer program for laying out newspaper pages. She remembers how fast Denise Smith could use the linotype machine to set type, and how nice Dan Miles was to work for.
“He was the boss, but when he wanted something done, he always asked, and said thank you,” she recalled.
Jennifer also worked for the Kansas City Star, then returned to Clinton and the Democrat. Now she works at Schreiber Foods during the day and paints shoes on her days off.
Jenn said she started being a shoe artist by going out to Shoe Sensation and buying pairs to practice on. Her forte is pop culture characters, she said, but she also does shoes for sports fans — Kansas City Chiefs or Clinton Cardinals. Cartoon characters, movie characters and team logos are considered “fan art,” she said, and are excluded from copyright laws.
Jenn has also personalized motorcycle helmets, and paints murals — every room in her house has one, she said, except her art room. She has a customer who is an equestrienne and performs in horse shows, and is considering customizing her riding helmet and all her tack with images from her favorite fantasy movie.
All shoes, canvas or leather, can be painted except for water-proof shoes and exercise shoes made of plastic mesh, Jenn said. She uses paint by a company called Angelus that branched out from shoe polish when shoe culture expanded, she said. Jenn first selects the colors, then mixes in an additive depending on the shoe fabric, which prevents the paint from making the fabric stiff, and applies the paint using an airbrush. She finishes with a clear coat.
Customers come from all age groups. Commissions have included a “Game of Thrones” pair for a 65-year-old woman and a Cocomelon pair for a 2-year-old. Jenn said she plans to finish an “Alice in Wonderland” pair for herself when she gets the time.
Jenn gets business mostly by word of mouth — her coworkers send her commissions and serve as “walking billboards.” She recently chose a company name, Fainting Goat, ordered business cards and reserved a web address, fainting goat.me.
Jennifer Jones, the owner of The Game Box, made Jenn a Fainting Goat T-shirt with her logo, an F and an upside-down G.
“I’m a Capricorn,” Jenn explained, “and I think fainting goats are hysterical.”
Her charge for custom-painting shoes starts at $50, but can be more depending on the complexity of the design. Leather shoes are also more expensive to paint, she said, as the surface requires preparation.
