Pop artist Maura Weiler combines found objects to create new and unpredictable works of art that have been showcased on NBC Television’s Just Shoot Me and in corporate and private collections across the country. This site features Weiler’s reinvention of her favorite muse, the humble shoe, with a ragtag band of gum wrappers, chopsticks, bottle caps, and other pop culture ephemera to create funky pieces that inspire and amuse.

Artist Statement- Art with Soul

I’ve always been fascinated by things with soul. In a world of conspicuous consumption, I see character in disposable objects and enjoy the challenge of reinventing things after they’ve fulfilled their original purpose. To that end, I work with found objects in my art. I scour thrift stores, alleyways and yard sales for cast-offs, and then combine them in new and unexpected ways. Shoes are my favorite set piece, the more worn and beaten up the better. I imagine the life each shoe had before, the stories it could tell, the miles it has walked. I let the past history of both the shoe and the colorful cast-offs I embellish it with animate the new work. Then I send each shoe back out into the world, sans partner this time in its new role as a decorative piece, and wonder what it will become next.

- Maura Weiler