“Sanctifying the discarded through transformation.”
Sean Paul Gallegos is a biracial multicultural artist creating fiber art/contemporary craft utilizing discarded sneakers and upcycled fibers as his mediums. His processes are all executed by hand whether sewing, embroidery or weaving.
Corazon Alado, 9 x 8.5 x 2.25 in, discarded sneaker scraps from other sculptures, thread, laces, 2019. Owned by the City of Albuquerque’s permanent collection.
The Start.
Pulling the sewing machine out of the hall closet at age 10 was the beginning. Creating costumes for my teddy bears was a passion that led to a career. I worked in my twenties in NYC in costume shops and fashion houses as I started to build my art career. Although I rarely use a sewing machine for my fine art, it got me started. All of my work is sewn and embroidered by hand. While I still pull out my commercial Singer now and then, it is usually to make me something to wear to an opening.
The Sneakers.
I lived in the old offices of a pesticide company for over 10 years in the Bronx, NYC. The neighbor who lived above me in the three bedroom apartment that spanned the two, one bedrooms below had an art gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. One day he brought me five knock-off Air Jordans from a Chinatown dumpster and stated "make something out of these and I'll put you in an exhibition at my gallery". He knowing full well that while I sewed in Costume and Fashion, I didn't consider myself an artist. This photo I took on Evergreen Ave. in the Bronx in 2013.
Why Weaving?
Having been born into a weaving lineage in Northern, New Mexico, I would have been 5th generation had I not been adopted at age 8. It has been a natural progression for me to study weaving in it’s many forms and find the way that it connects for me to my ancestry. Tapestry weaving comes natural to me and finding ways to make it my own since I wasn’t formally trained in traditional methodologies.
Four selvage tapestry weaving is inspiring to me since there are so many ways a weaving can be transformed. Obviously the other style of weaving as seen above that excites me is tablet weaving.