More people than ever before in our nation’s history are experiencing the arts, a here-and-now renaissance that nudges us to see that “ordinary” may not be ordinary at all. The artist sees the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Take a small example. Sneakers. A child in her first-ever summer arts program for the first time in her life draws her sneakers. She really looks at her shoes, even the way the laces weave in and out, one untied. Pencils in hand, she’s absorbed in the making; time flies, then, voila … a hand-made sneaker picture. She’s surprised, delighted by what she’s made.

It’s not just a picture that’s happening. It’s a viewpoint shift in the maker and observer. A new awareness that even a kid’s own sneakers have form, color, lines, volume, meaning.  Call it aesthetic value—beauty if you want—an artful worthiness within something so common we often walk by.

There are lots of distractions (aren’t there?) from stopping to really observe — screenlessly.  

Here’s one you can’t miss…

Aaron Fowler (American, b. 1988) Live Culture Force 1’s, 2022, car parts and mixed media, courtesy of the artist (as displayed in The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, June 28–Sept 29, 2024). Photo by Phil Armstrong for the Cincinnati Art Museum. NOT ON DISPLAY

… a sneaker at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2024’s "The Culture" exhibition that was too big for our SketchCAM to walk by!

Here’s the thing: “renaissance” happens within here-and-now aesthetic experiences, small and large, in the lives of we the people, all of us. Multiply and scale arts education across homes, neighborhoods, towns, cities, nations—who knew a sneaker might end up in an art museum?

SketchCAM likes the giant sneaker … even though it won’t fit a men’s 11.  It sneaks up on a changed way of seeing, the stuff of here-and-now renaissance. Like a child drawing her sneaker for the first time, a giant version says, “Hey, heads up, look around, put the phone aside, check it out.”

As we say in art teaching: see it like you’re seeing it for the first time. Art maker or not, you recall the first-seen scenes of life, right? You want the work to convey discovery instead of been-there-done-that.

So it is that sneakers, big and small, can lead to discovery. The aesthetics which we human beings need for well-being aren’t far away—but maybe right at our feet.