Last modified: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 2:54 PM EDT For 'Message,' Michael Boroniec of Pittsfield used ceramic and pewter to imitate his best friend's boots, which are currently in Afghanistan. (SUBMITTED). For Brockton, the 'Perfect Fit' BY TARA VOCINO CORRESPONDENT BROCKTON -Many people know about Brockton's shoemaking history, but the Fuller Craft Museum is bringing the past back - through art. Shoe imagery, especially in artwork, is vibrant: Its meaning ranges from symbols of sexual obsession, degradation, comfort, and strength to fashion and style. To demonstrate that, the museum last weekend opened "The Perfect Fit: Shoes Tell Stories." It runs through Jan. 3, 2010 with an opening reception set for 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 14. Brockton was once known as the "shoe capital of the world," and this exhibit displays about 120 shoes in various mediums and sizes that tell the artist's or an ancestor's story. Curator Wendy Tarlow Kaplan said she received nearly 1,000 submissions after putting out a request asking that each one have a symbolic meaning behind it. In just three days, Kaplan narrowed the hundreds of submissions down to what she felt were the best and the brightest works of representative art. "Since many were sent as digital images, I only have one memory of what a piece looks like," she said during a media preview last week. "It's a surprise how much bigger or smaller they actually are. I'm delighted by it." Marguerite Belkin from Washington, D.C. hand folded 300 tiny origami shoes out of rice paper and acrylic paint to represent the bound feet of Asian women that are broken and, as a result, never grow properly. She calls this work "The Pursuit of Happiness." There are many Massachusetts artists featured, but artists from five other New England states, Canada, and Israel are also represented. Newton artist Judy Haberl traveled even farther back than the shoemaking era in collecting 416 anonymous baby shoes from American Bronze and Co. Some are from the 1800s, and all of them were once mantelpiece bookends. After a year of collecting these copper shoes, Haberl made an installation with classical music accompaniment, because she feels the shoe openings are shaped like singing, open mouths. The corresponding label reads, "The sounds vary from the piercing cries of newborns to a choir of small voices in unison that range from endearing to annoying." The range is intended to represent the complex relationship between parents and their children. "It narrates the cycle of life via footprints," she said. "It shows different ways people go out in the world - literally." In "Ladies Size 13: The Shoe NEVER Fits," Karen J.S. Tashjian and Diane E. Green confront viewers with the idea that the shoes some women buy are often like the ugly stepsister in "Cinderella" - boring and ugly. The artists carved a black shoe into an oversized polyurethane rubber foot. Museum intern Jeanne Garnder, who helped organize the "Perfect Fit" exhibit, said there is not a money exchange between artists and the museum, with the exception of a fee to submit their artwork, but it gives artists an opportunity to showcase their talents to the world. Patricia Delaney of Brockton stitched a cotton quilt called "My Dorothy Complex: I'm Crazy about Red Shoes." Her corresponding label reads, "I felt especially drawn to this exhibition because I am a descendant in a family that has been associated with the shoe industry in Brockton for five generations. In fact, I cannot think of a single person, in my immediate and extended family, who was not involved in shoe manufacturing at some point in their lives." For "Message," Michael Boroniec of Pittsfield used ceramic and pewter to imitate his best friend's boots, which are currently in Afghanistan. A message carrier - a dove made out of newspaper - represents peace, but it also brings news of another explosion, as the Holy War continues. The corresponding label reads in part, "while the boots sit like a stone on top of an oil barrel, which has been 'tagged' with a factory producing pollution." The message ties into the inspiration for this exhibit - that Brockton was the largest producer of men's shoes and boots during the Civil War. The industry continued to thrive until the mid-20th century, but declined due to cheaper manufacturing competition worldwide. The exhibit opens with a timeline and video about the history of shoemaking in Brockton, and the rest is carefully crafted, symbolic art. After its premiere at Fuller Craft, it will travel to other U.S. cities, with dates and locations to be announced. If you go... WHAT: "The Perfect Fit: Shoes Tell Stories" exhibit WHERE: Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak St., Brockton HOURS: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: $8, adults; $5, seniors and students; children under 12, members and Wed. from 5 to 9 p.m., free WHEN: through July 3, 2010; opening reception June 14 from 2 to 5 p.m. CONTACT: www.fullercraft.org or 508-588-6000 TARA VOCINO is a student at Wheaton College in Norton and is interning this summer at The Sun Chronicle. She can be reached at vocino_tara@wheatonma.edu.