At the time, the source of the fire was a total mystery. But I’ve since figured out what caused it: my roommate’s rabbit who chewed on wires. It was one of those things where the bunny chews the wires and a day or so later there’s a loose connection, causing an electrical fire. It was a catastrophe.
I spent a whole year fighting an eviction with tenant's rights groups and everything. It almost ruined my life. It ruined my relationship. It was a really hard year, and only in retrospect, years later, do I realize that horrible time is what led me to this career that I love, that I get so much out of now.
I've been making and pursuing art forever. Finding shoemaking—sandal making—was an exciting breakthrough because it means so many more people could access the craft and get excited about it.
The art I had been making before was pretty esoteric. I was doing things like vegetable performance art, in which I staged a really big, 15-person silent performance in Golden Gate Park where everyone wore vegetable costumes. I was recreating this Zen Buddhist painting—it was a recurring art project for years. So that was the kind of stuff I was pursuing, and explaining that to people, you just watch their eyes glaze over. “Do you make paintings or sculptures?” But that's all retired now that I’m a practical shoemaker.
Shoes are neat because they’re like a functional sculpture—they really have to work. You also have to make two of them, and they have to be the same but mirror opposites. The foot is a really fucked up shape, and trying to fit something on it twice is the ultimate challenge. There are so many variables. I get a lot of satisfaction out of solving those problems. I'm really jealous of bag makers because they get to make just one thing. And it kind of has to fit the body, but not really.