Another pair of custom Vans has been introduced into the universe. This particular pair ended up being a major creative accident. In my Etsy listing, I asked for 10 items that she would like included on the shoes. They could be anything. Here was the list she provided me with:

1. I really like TREES. If it can look like a Rainbow Eucalyptus, then I’d be happy.

2. I love MONKEYS

3. I love CATS

4. “I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way / than this.” -Pablo Neruda (in Spanish)

5. A set of roses (a white, red, and pink rose)

6. My name.

7. “One that loved not wisely but too well.” -Shakespeare

8. “The world isn’t against you, my dear, it just doesn’t care.”

9. THE PHYSICS TROLL FACE =]

10.Schrodinger’s Equation

Also, she asked me to put something else on the shoes. Anything I wanted. Hmmmm… Creative freedom can be a bitch.

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Given this assortment of elements was quite a challenge (which I realized after seeing what rainbow eucalyptus looks like). I scratched my head thinking HOW was I gonna pull this off with Sharpie and Prismacolor markers? So I started my quest to find the perfect cat and monkey combo that would work on such a busy background. I needed to artwork to be cohesive, and I knew I wanted the cat and monkey on opposite shoes. After several bouts of head scratching I came up with the perfect concept for the two animals: Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz! Knowing my client was a physics major was what helped me with the placement of the items on the list.

With this information in place, in a moment of genius, I decided to follow the concept of left brain and right brain dominance. The left shoe  represents the logical and analytic, hereby scientific side featuring a monkey on the front (Darwin anyone?). In the final product you can see the monkey is holding a feather and is daydreaming about being a flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz.  The right shoe would represent creative, visual  brain dominance and be aesthetically thoughtful. This shoe has a sleeping tabby cat dreaming about the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I also added a clock which goes along well with this theme, plus I was already running late on my deadline.

As a sidenote, the monkey is in a daydream which is onset by a physical object (the feather), therefore following the left brain function of objectively looking at parts before the whole. The sleeping cat is having an actual dream; belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object, this follows the right brain function of subjective thought.

I obviously put a lot of thought into these shoes… which makes me wonder which side of my brain is dominate. So I took an online quiz. It may not be the most accurate way to test brain activity, but it was fun. Here are my results:

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendency will help you interact with and to understand others. Left Brain Dominance: (10) Right Brain Dominance: (12) Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz