33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 40

40 ORNAMENT 33.5.2010 holding ontoastar-studded, fabledstatus.InTexas,which of ahorse,cowboybootsgrabthe imaginationandpersistin people whowearthemhaverarely orneverseenthebackside the lastingpopularityofcowboyboots.Eventhoughmost : Especiallyhisboots. a .Werecognizehimbyhishat,six-gunand enduring symbolofAmericanlegend,loreandromance— movie isanimated,thecharactersaretoys,andWoodythat “He alwaystoldmethatacowboybootshouldlooklikeCokebottleorbeautifulwoman; It isimpossibletooverestimatetheallure,mystique, good guys and vanquish the bad. As everybody knows, the good guysandvanquishthebad.Aseverybodyknows, its old-fashionedhero,Woody,rushedforthtosavethe oy Story3hitmoviescreensthissummer,andonceagain then he’ddescribetheshapeofanhourglasswithhishands.” them. Inhisnow-classic storied pairofblackbootshadgold Krugerrandsimbeddedin like whale,anteaterandelephant skin(prohibitednow).One conspicuous consumption.Exotichideswereintroduced, than totheirfirstwives. remarked thatTexasmenaremoreloyaltotheirbootmakers their bootsfordecadesfromthesamemaker.Ithasbeen the samefamilies,andfaithfulcustomersareknowntobuy tradition. Bootmakingispasseddownthroughgenerationsin boots, theyareconsideredanartformandagloriouslyproud might reasonablybecalledthemotherlodeforhandcrafted In thegoldeneraof1950s,bootswentonajoyridein The CowboyBootBook Leslie Clark , firstpublished 9/2/10 5:04 PM 33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 41 Opposite page:UNTITLED,MontanaBoots.Mixedmedia. crocodile foot. BUTTERFLIES ANDBLUEBIRDS,LisaSorrell, 2008.Kangarootopand know itappearedonthescene.AccordingtoBeard,“Big which iswhattheylooked,andprobablyfelt,like. the 1880s.Thetall,leveltopswereknownas“stovepipes,” military bootsandwereadaptedforcattleranchingthrough through thestirrup,theyformedbasisforAmerican with alowheelwhichpreventedthefootfromdropping boots inspiredthenextcraze.Calf-highofplainblackleather Napoleon atWaterloo,theidolizedDukeofWellington’s high topsandroundedtoes.In1815,afterhisdefeatof bootswere“straights”—i.e.,noleftorrightfoot—with European ridingboot.Datingfromtheseventeenthcentury, blazing lonestar.” embroideredinpuregoldthread,completewiththe In hiscordovanboottopwastheemblemofstate middle ofthetoecapsweremountedtwo-caratdiamonds… silver platescoveringhisbootheelsandtoes.Rightinthe His practicedeyeskippedovertherichlyengravedsterling- concentrate onthesaleforstaringatcustomer’sboots. asked toseetheirsilverbeltbuckles.Thejewelercouldnot into theJohnFurbackjewelrystoreinAmarillo,Texas,and magazine illustratinghowbootsgotgussiedup. Beard quotedastoryfrom1955issueofTheCattleman in 1992,thelatebootcollectorandwesternpropsdealerTyler But nobodyquiteagreesonwherethecowboybootaswe Everyone agreesthatcowboybootsaredescendantsofthe “Last summeracustomerwearinghandmadebootswalked Museum ofArt,SantaFe. Mixed media. PLAYING CARDBOOTS,AbrahamRiosofMercedes,Texas,circa1940s. for Obamayet.Carrollattributes thereputationofhisprized six andhasmadebootsforthelast sixpresidents,thoughnot business in1938,Carrollbegan learninghiscraftattheageof second-generation bootmakerwhosefatherstartedthe A story isrepresentative,exceptforhishigh-flyingcustomers. from famedHoustonbootmakerRockyCarroll.Carroll’s diamond-studded whiteonescostingfortythousanddollars promoting matchingchildren’sboots. cowboy outfitsafterWorldWarII,withmail-ordercatalogues took overandmillionsofAmericankidswentouttoplayin cactus, longhorns,eagles,andbuckingbroncos.Television inlays andoverlaysofplayingcards,twiningrosesvines, sang toradiolisteners,bootsenjoyednoendofcolored- cowboy moviestarsrodeintothesunsetandcrooners fashion accessorytookholdandhasneverleft.As1920s mythologizing oftheWest,ideacowboybootas and theuppers. vamp, coveringthefrontoffoot;counter,overheel, standard fourbasicsectionsthatgointobuildingaboot:the style. Ithadapieced-onfront,theprecursortonow- “Coffeyville” fromCoffeyville,Kansas,becameaprominent higher heel,andthickleatherforprotection.Inthe1860s, what theyneeded:narrow,pointedtoes,anunderslung, and Abilene,Kansas,theyaskedcobblerstomakebootswith cattle drivesatrailheadsinDodgeCity,Wichita,Ellsworth, records alsoshowthatassooncowboysendedthegreat frontier settlementonwhatbecametheChisholmTrail.But aftertheCivilWarinhisshopSpanishFort,Texas,a Daddy Joe”Justiniscreditedwithmakingthefirstcowboy Elizabeth Taylormadecustomboothistoryordering Thanks totheentertainmentindustryanditsenthusiastic Photographs byBlairClark;courtesyoftheNewMexico 9/2/10 5:04 PM

411 ORNAMENTORNAMENTM 33.5.201033.33 5.5 20100 33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 42

422 ORNAMENTORNAORN MENTME T 33.5.201033.33 5.2010 boot tradition. showboat styleistemperedby anostalgicloveofcowboy Colorful, flamboyant,even bordering onkitsch,their Snortum callsRocketbusterboots “westTexasretro-moderne.” World WarII,thathaveremainedinvogueeversince). (i.e. low-topboots,madebecauseofaleathershortageduring Marty Snortum,wasinspiredbyglitzyvintagepeeweeboots newcomer, Rocketbuster.Rocketbuster,foundedin1989by businesses: Lucchese,Justin,TonyLama,Nocona,anda the big-namebrands,whichallstartedoutassmallfamily anywhere elseinAmerica.Mostpeoplearefamiliarwith to Traugott,thecityboastsmorebootmanufacturersthan El Paso,regardedasthebootcapitalofworld.According Traugott trolledthroughliterallythousandsofboots,mostlyin New MexicoMuseumofArtinSantaFe,curatorJoseph independence, freedomandunpredictablebehavior. alive, redefiningtheWestwithattributesofgo-your-own-way London andBangkok.Theyconveyalegacythatisstillvividly role asrebelsandoutsiders.Cowboybootswalkthestreetsof the feetofrock‘n’rollandcountrymusicstars,affirmingtheir of contemporaryartandphotography.Theytakethestageon advertising (thinkoftheMarlboroman)andserveassubjects Carroll sayshelikestostitch“character”intohisboots. and lavishembroideryburstwithrowdyabandonintoview. wearer sitdownandhispantlegshikeup,ornateinlay of thefootlooksfairlydecorousandconservative.Butlet boots totheir“splitpersonality.”Thebottomortopfrontpart For theexhibitSoleMates:CowboyBootsandArtat Boots stillkeepgettingreinvented.Theymigratedinto MY DAYOFTHEDEAD,DeanaMcGuffin. DEANA McGUFFINafteralongday,2009. which doesnotcallforbeads. Theyrepresentsomeofthe terms like“toebug,”“wrinkles,” “muleears,”and“beading,” become professionalbootmakers. programs andholdsprivatecoursesforpeoplewantingto extensively throughNewMexicostate-fundedtraining McGuffin onbuildingtheirownboots.Shealsoteaches of tutorialwheretheytraveltohershopandcollaboratewith customers signupforatwo-week“learningvacation,”sort boots. Herorderscomefromalloverthecountry,andsome has noticedincreasingnumbersofwomenbuyinghandmade designs. TenyearsagoMcGuffinmovedtoAlbuquerque,and she becameknownforherrichmetalliccolorsandnarrative she wantedtomakedressboots,“realfancyandcolorful,” styles ofSanAntoniobootmakerDaveLittle,McGuffinknew customers. Inspiredbyherfather’sworkandthebeautiful shop in1985ruralClovis,NewMexico,withranchersfor McGuffin learnedthecraftalongsidehim.Sheopenedherown father ranasmallhomeshop,mostlyforbootrepairs,and remembers. Butsheprevailed.Thoughhewasretired,her think itwasreallyappropriateforawoman,”McGuffin didn’t thinkIwasphysicallystrongenough,andhe convince herfathertoteachhowbuildboots.“He credit. Athird-generationbootmaker,DeanaMcGuffinhadto background stitchingdesignsontops.Theynevergotmuch been involvedincustombootsforalongtime,mostlythe in NewMexico,andLisaSorrellOklahoma.Womenhave winning contemporarywomenbootmakers,DeanaMcGuffin A bootmaker’stalkisstudded with thought-provoking Traugott’s searchalsoturnedupexamplesbytwoaward- 9/2/10 5:04 PM 33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 43 of thecomplexhands-onstepsrequiredinbuildinghandmade splitting, sewingandshapingleather,buttheyareonlypart mind. Abootmakerreliesonseveralpiecesofmachinery,for hand motion,”andthekindofstrengththatherfatherhadin inside,” McGuffinexplains.Therolling“takesaparticular lining sidewithwater,andthenstartrollingthemtothe to therightside.“Youstartattopofshaft,dampen job ofturningthetops,withfootsectionsalreadyattached, parts aresewntogetherinsideout.Thencomesthepainstaking layers inthedancer’sskirt. enough tocreatefinedetailandtherippling,three-dimensional turquoise andhotpinklambskin,alightweightleatherflexible Dead bootsattheSoleMatesshow,McGuffinusedpearlized decoration. FortheintricateinlayinheruniqueDayof height andfitatthebootthroat.Thencomesoutside makes atoporshaftpatternforeachclient,togettheright boots arebuiltfromthetopdown,notbottomup.McGuffin a pairofoff-the-shelfboots.Contrarytopopularassumption, that thepriceoffinequalityleathersaloneisoftenmorethan the materialsareexpensivetostartwith,”shesays,mentioning one reasoncustombootscostasmuchtheydoisbecause kangaroo andostrichleathers.“Peopledon’tunderstandthat height, stitching,anddecorations.McGuffinworksmostlyin has inselectingleathers,colorpalette,toeshape,heelandtop design featuresonaboot,alongwiththechoicescustomer MASTER WINNER,LisaSorrell,2007.Crocodile andotherleathers. Once theshaftdesignsarefinished,frontandback

and brightcolors.”Sorrellonly uses kangaroo,alligator,ostrich, states. “Cowboybootsareaway formentowearhighheels customer isabusinessman—my bootsgototheoffice,”she I want.”Sorrellsqueezedherinto theschedule.“Mytypical wears cowboybootsinBoston,but“I’moldenoughtodowhat year-old womanfromBoston,whotoldSorrellthatnobody Wyoming, Sweden,Washington,D.C.,andforaseventy-eight- boots. Atthemomentsheisbuildingbootsforclientsfrom what theyweredoing.” making sense,andtenyearsbeforemyhandsbegantoknow that sheworked“fiveyearsbuildingbootsbeforeitstarted in aworkingbootshop,thebetteryou’llbe.”Sorrellmaintains advocated anapprenticeship:“Themoretimeyoucanspend first toGriffithandthenoneofhisstudents.Shestrongly honored system,Sorrellspentthreeyearsapprenticingherself, shape ofanhourglasswithhishands.”Followingthetime- a Cokebottleorbeautifulwoman;thenhe’ddescribethe him. “Healwaystoldmethatacowboybootshouldlooklike bootmaker JayGriffith.Shelearnedeverythingshecouldfrom designed clothesforalivingbeforeshewenttowork cowboy boots.”Sorrelllearnedtosewgrowingupandhad never heardofacowboybootmakerandhadworn seeking someonetostitchboottops.Atthetime,shesays,“I’d answered awantadinGuthrie,,newspaper and computerizedmachinesdothedesigningstitching. boots. Factorybootsareassembledonautomatedequipment, PURE LUXURY,LisaSorrell,2009.Crocodileandotherleathers. With herwaitinglist,ittakesayeartogetpairofSorrell’s A littleovertwentyyearsago,MissourinativeLisaSorrell

9/2/10 5:04 PM

43 ORNAMENTORNAMENT 33.5.201033.5.2010 DEANA MCGUFFIN’S FINISHED BOOTS IN THE SHOP, 2009.

and crocodile , but has to hunt for the colors she

needs. “It’s very frustrating if you want a certain shade of Sole Mates: Cowboy Boots and Art, at the Museum of Art in Santa Fe through October 17, 2010, celebrates the green, for instance. The problem is you can never find it. mythmaking, imagery, popular culture and changing attitudes With leather, you learn to design with the colors you can towards the West embodied by the cowboy and his boots. The get.” She usually works on three pairs of boots at a time, show opens with a kinetic excitement: the entrance frames Donald leapfrogging among them “because there’s a lot of wet and Woodman’s enormous black-and-white inkjet print of a cowboy bull rider, aloft in the air in a blur of tumult and energy. Someone dry time. What I like to do is start my boots at the beginning sings a plaintive cowboy song in the background. After the rousing of the month and end at the end of the month. I can stay introduction, twentieth-century art curator Joseph Traugott’s exhibit organized and know exactly where I am and what process delves into a chronological survey of more than a century of boots and related cowboy art. Roughly eighty pieces of artwork, including needs doing next.” She likes to listen to classic country paintings, prints, drawings, lithographs, sculpture, advertisements, music at work, and has made a custom of naming her postcards, video and photographs accompany fifty pairs of boots boots after old songs where the mood of the music matches from twenty-four lenders around the country. the mood of the boots. Titles and lyrics from classic Westerns introduce each of the exhibit’s sections, beginning with I See by Your Outfit That You Sorrell says she has never faced discrimination as a Are a Cowboy. Alongside turn-of-the-last-century boots worn by woman bootmaker, though she has come across some real working hands are paintings and drawings by Frederic curious assumptions. “Jay had an amazing flair for color Remington and Charles Russell, the American artists Traugott and design. People often say to me, ‘You make beautiful identifies as first elevating the image of the cowboy in the late 1880s into the personification of the West. Later sections of the exhibit boots because you’re a woman.’ I tell them that everything scan the evolution of that legacy in movies, fashion, folk humor, I know about color and design I learned from a grouchy old commerce, and contemporary art, while a major theme within Sole alcoholic.” For her inlay and overlay, two types of intricate Mates probes questions about the roles of gender, freedom and individuality in defining what the West means. sewn-on decoration which she described as “very similar to Running like a bright refrain throughout are the cowboy boots, quilting,” Sorrell relies on kangaroo leather exclusively, for presented as works of art and as subjects of works of art. its durability and because it responds the best to “skiving,” a From a sensational pair of elaborate multicolored inlaid boots method of thinning the edges so the leather lies smoothly commemorating the life of actor James Dean, to artist Carol without any ridges or bumps. “Every edge is cut twice,” Sarkisian’s “sculpture” of boots thickly encrusted in glass beads, to the handsome boots covered with New Mexico images belonging Sorrell explains. “First it’s cut out and then it’s skived in.” to Governor Bill Richardson, every pair illustrates the wide open She admits that “I love to play with those two techniques so range of possibilities and assumptions associated with such an iconic seamlessly that you have to get up close to see which one symbol. Short or tall, plain-stitched or fancy, beat up or gilded in gold, the boots in Sole Mates affirm that the culture of the cowboy I’ve done.” Reflecting on what she just said, Sorrell wryly

44 ORNAMENT 33.5.2010 West lives on, an ever-evolving, beloved ideal in American life. notes, “I may have a fetish.”

33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 44 9/2/10 5:04 PM 33_5_SoleMatesJD.indd 45 recalled ananecdoteaboutabeginnerlearningtomakeboots. independent bootmakersweretoughtaskmasters.Sorrell something inthemiddle,canyoufindmiddle?”Theold bootmaker, haveyougotagoodeye?IfItelltoput students inhershop.“Isaytopeoplewhowantbecomea them becausetheyaresowonderful.”Sheoftenteaches cowboy bootstootherpeopleandteachthemhowappreciate Baltimore show.“Ilovedit,”shesays.wanttointroduce Smithsonian CraftShowandattheAmericanCouncil and likeeverybootmakerhasshelvesfullofthem. lines andsexycurves.”Shecustomizeslastsforeachclient, lasts fromthe1940s,whichshefavorsfor“theirmoregraceful of acustomer’sfoot.Sorrellisforeversearchingforwooden crucially onthelast,apiecemadefrommultiplemeasurements floppy. Butahandmadeboot’ssuperiorfitdependsmost longer itisworn,untilbootsinevitablybecomelooseand manufactured boots,leathertendstokeeponstretchingthe leather losesmostofits“memory.”Otherwise,aswith drying it,whichhelpsformtheshapeofinstepas tightened overacurvedboard,whilealternatelywettingand piece ofleathercoveringthevamp.Thevampisslowly of ademandingprocedurecalled“crimping,”orshaping,the it iselaborate.Custom-madebootslastalongtimebecause comfort andfit,asdoesintothestylingonoutside,unless much timeandskillcangointotheinteriorconstruction,for distinguish handmadecowboybootsistoputthemon.As UNTITLED, LarryMahan.Mixedmedia. This yearforthefirsttimeSorrellexhibitedat According tocuratorJoeTraugott,thebestway

on theplanet.” and fortheirowner.Assheputit,“They’rethesexiestshoes McGuffin’s product. Ifeelthey’readistinctlyAmericanicon.”In a connection, aheritage,tocowboyboots—they’renotjust happened whenyouworeyourboots.There’sanemotional their grandfather.Iaskmycustomers,writeandtellmewhat ‘My grandfatherhadbootslikethat,’andthey’lltellmeabout story thatcomeswiththem,”Sorrellobserves.“Peoplesay, history. “I’venoticedaboutcowboybootsthatthere’salwaysa we thoughtaboutourselves.Bootsalsosustainapersonal artifact, ameansoflookingbackatwhowewereandhow Mates exhibitdemonstrates,bootsareavaluablecultural limitless, especiallyasacanvasforself-expression.AstheSole devoted totheartofcowboyboot.Theirappealseems the expandingnumberofbooks,publicationsandwebsites coming intothebusiness,”McGuffinsays,commentingon bootmakers inthecountry.“Alotofyoungerpeopleare that therearecurrentlyaroundtwohundredcustom and morepeoplethaneverseemdrawntothem.Itisestimated first pairofboots.Sorrell,youcantell,isthrilled. Her thirteen-year-olddaughter,Paige,isabouttobuildher look wonderfulandthatlikeeachother,”Sorrellstates. he toldhisyoungapprentice.“Youhavetomaketwobootsthat him tookthebootawayandhidit.“Nowmakeotherone,” After hefinishedthefirstone,bootmakerwhowastraining Beard, TylerandJimArndt SUGGESTED READING UNTITLED, L.W.McGuffin. June, Jennifer Traugott, Joseph Cowboy bootshavebeenwornforwelloveracentury, Smith Books,1992. Publishing, 2007. Museum ofNewMexicoPress,2010. . Cowboy Boots:TheArt&Sole view, bootshavegoteverythinggoing,forthem . Sole Mates:CowboyBootsandArt . The CowboyBootBook . NewYork,York:Universe . SantaFe,NewMexico: . SaltLakeCity,Utah:Peregine 9/2/10 5:04 PM

454 ORNAMENTORNAORNORO MENTMEENTNTN 33.5.201033.333 5.5 20100