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Vans continues to provide a canvas and platform for artists who have made their own lane and continue to push the boundaries of creativity as their vehicle of self-expression. This season Vans welcomes multi-disciplinary artists, Christopher Martin and Olivia Krause who have each defined their own path and use various artistic mediums to explore and capture imagery inspired by their roots as well as human emotion. The custom made Old Skools designed by Christopher Martin and Olivia Krause are now available on Vans.com/oldskool.
Born in North Carolina but now based in Oakland, CA, Christopher Martin plays with assorted mediums including textiles, tattooing, along with painting and illustration to create a body of work that is inspired by the journey to his roots. Using textiles as a primary medium, Martin reclaims cotton as a material that once enslaved his ancestors and combines past and contemporary images to form cut and sewn banners. Martin approached the canvas of the Old Skool as he would a tattoo, by considering the anatomy and making sure the design fit perfectly under the Sidestripe. Martin’s Old Skool design features a lady gazing at the moon – she is nostalgic of her journey while she lounges in a field of cotton plants; Using black and white colors throughout his work to reflect the bold and bare truth that represents the tensions of White and Blacks in America.
“When I think of the Old Skool, I reflect on the past and how it has brought me to where I am today,” says Martin. “I learned that one of the main resources used to create Vans shoes is cotton. I wanted to make the connection since cotton in American has been synonymous with pain and struggle within the Black community.”
Based out of Oakland, CA, Olivia Krause is a painter, textile artist and photographer. Krause enjoys working across various mediums to express their visions and creations to create vibrant imagery to help express the human experience and emotional space in abstract ways. Krause is inspired by love and the exploration of self and others. Kause’s inspiration came from watching the sunset over a drive from Los Angeles to Oakland that they took on a road trip with friends.
“I never wanted the sunset to end so I took a bunch of photos of it, some of them had a fence in them. I have loved that image and create that moment whenever I can,” said Krause. The Old Skools were designed to serve as a pop of color to capture the gradient with a hand-drawn fence graphic across the quarter panels. The vivid pattern is juxtaposed with bold color pops on the eyelets and binding and is finished cow printed uppers and a lightning bolt sidewall graphic.
Christopher Martin and Olivia Krause’s custom made Old Skool’s are available to shop now on Vans.com/oldskool.
more pics after the jump
