Between 2007 and 2012, I carried a pocket-size Moleskine sketchbook and a pen, and, on my commute from home to work and back, I would entertain myself making sketches of women’s feet, really quick drawings.
This is not the first time that I portrayed women’s feet in my artwork; in fact, I put together an exhibition on that subject in 2002 in São Paulo, Brasil, called “Pés Roubados”— Stolen Feet.
But this collection of sketches from the New York subway was something I’d never tried before. It was live drawing in a chaotic environment, during rush hour on a New York subway train, with hundreds of people going to work or returning home. It was driven by pure adrenaline, constant noise, people moving in and out of the train all the time. I created most of these drawings while standing up, leaning against the door, and allowing myself the window of time between one station and the next.
I hope you enjoy and feel these feet as alive as they were while I was drawing them.