Art Enables Saturday Workshop: SHOETOPIA!

January 20 | 11 am - 3 pm

Get ready to make a fashion statement at our next Saturday workshop on January 20 from 11 am to 3 pm! Unleash your creativity and discover the joy of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary under the expert guidance of Art Enables resident artist Shawn Payne as you create your very own 2D bejeweled shoes, sneakers, and handbags inspired by Art Enables current exhibition “Shawn & Charlie’s Shoetopia.” This hands-on workshop invites you to explore the world of markers, glitter, gemstone stickers, and various embellishments to bring your imaginative designs to life.

Drop in anytime between 11 am and 3 pm to enjoy this free, family-friendly, and inclusive workshop. We’ll provide all the materials that you will need to create your masterpieces. All you need to bring is a willingness to experiment and have fun!

Art Enables Saturday Workshops are free, family-friendly, and welcome all art-making abilities. Registration is recommended to secure your spot. We may close registration if we reach capacity.

Art Enables is committed to providing access to everyone. If you require accommodation during your visit, please make a note in the RSVP or email us at info@art-enables.org.

About Shawn Payne

Shawn is a quiet and hard-working artist. He enjoys making a fashion statement, which is evident in his enthusiasm for creating designer shoes in his artwork. Shawn favors a mixed media approach of acrylic, rhinestones, and glitter, and his shoes have themed designs full of clever details that are often reflected in his backgrounds, too. Shawn loves to express himself and his imagination. He describes his art as being a perfect mix of elegant and over the top. His dream is that one day, people will be wearing his creations in addition to enjoying them in his work. He loves to meet those who are interested in his work and to share his unique style with them personally. 

About “Shawn & Charlie’s Shoetopia”

Shawn Payne and Charlie Visconage are titans of footwear now, but they weren’t always a household name. In early 1993, Shawn was dreaming up fantastical designs by night while stuck fabricating laces at a giant, soulless shoe factory by day. At the same time, Charlie was stuck making boring shoe molds as a heel technician on another floor of the same factory. They each knew shoes could be something bigger, bolder, and more fun if they could only find the right opportunity to strike out on their own.

As luck would have it, Shawn and Charlie literally bumped into each other walking home from work one night, each of them scattering sketches of their own inventive shoe designs. They looked at the designs; they looked at each other, and they knew what they had to do: quit their jobs, join forces to design their own fabulous shoes, and open the store to sell those shoes. Thus was born Shawn and Charlie's Shoetopia. Anything but ordinary, the “two shoe ingenues” quickly gained a cult following for their whimsical high-heeled designs, delighting customers worldwide with their bright colors, sparkle, and playful heels shaped like Egyptian pyramids, musical instruments, forks, lips, dollar signs, doughnuts, pizza, Pac-Man, and more. The rest, as they say, is history! Shawn & Charlie’s landmark store in Washington, DC features the team’s newest fashions as well as inventory representing their most famous designs over the years. Shoe connoisseurs, rejoice!