Holy Soles

Deep in the garage of Jim Patti's house, hidden beneath a plastic covering, stands an imposing creation. The retired shoe-repair-man-turned-sculptor approaches the cloaked figure with a mischievous smile and slowly pulls away the cover. Underneath stands a stern sentinel of the heavens, who bears the remains of a thousand footsteps and the memories of Patti's trade.

Using hundreds of old leather shoe soles left over from his shoe-repair work, Patti created a somber, six-winged angel straight from a description in the Old Testament. "The whole thing about it is to be creative," said Patti of his unconventional medium.

Patti's work as a sculptor has left quite a legacy, from small works lodged in every corner and crevice of his home, to larger pieces on display around Lawrence. Many of his pieces have a religious theme, and Patti especially loves to sculpt angels.

He sees his role as an artist being quite important when shaping these figures because the primary information about them comes from written scripture. Every person who reads a written description creates a different mental image, but the artist takes his or her own idea and renders a physical creation. This can affect how others interpret the same description, said Patti, so accuracy becomes very important.

Anyone who has noticed the many sculptures on display around Lawrence will have seen the influence of Jim Patti in the city. According to Lawrence Convention and Visitor's Bureau director Judy Billings, he initiated the annual Downtown Sculpture Exhibition, which brings a dozen or so sculptures from around the country to Massachusetts Street. The sculptures, as original as Mass Street itself, color the downtown for a year before a new collection replaces them.

Several of Patti's own sculptures are displayed around town as well, from the courthouse to Veteran's Park. Perhaps the most prominent is the stone buffalo that watches traffic out on Clinton Parkway. "It's a sign of our history, and something Kansans can identify with," said Liesel Keel, Lawrence sophomore.

Patti keeps many of his smaller pieces in his house. Only the most keen observer will notice the carved wooden dog tucked under the grand piano. But each piece has a story, which Patti eagerly shares with a laugh, like a man bragging about his children.

The biggest sculpture in Patti's house is the angel made of leather shoe soles that stands in his garage. Although the frame is made of plywood and 2x4s, Patti gave the sculpture character with the old leather soles, many with holes worn in them. Even the dark locks of this curly haired creature came from the fine trimmings carved off the edge of a leather shoe and glued in place.

Patti spent much time researching his angels before daring to create. He says that he has learned through doing lots of reading, and making lots of mistakes. He learned as he went, and sometimes tried more than one idea for a sculpture before finding one that seemed probable.

As he worked to transform descriptions in the Bible into three-dimensional figures, he often found the passages difficult to visualize.

"You read words, but you think in images, and everyone reading the words comes up with different images from the same wording, depending on how they're thinking," Patti said.

The scripture passage he was interested in for his biggest angel describes an angel with a head and six wings. First, Patti tried a literal depiction. He fashioned a bronze sculpture of a head with three pairs of wings springing directly from it.

As he thought through the passage, however, he realized that he had limited the possibilities by thinking too narrowly. If the angel had six wings, then the entire body could be covered with wings and the angel could still have wings to fly with. Thus, only the head would be exposed. This would also be a head and six wings, exclaimed Patti, yet completely different from his original idea.

Patti learned from this experience that the concept the artist depicts can be a powerful tool. "The reason people have developed images of angels is through art," Patti said. People see pictures in books and statues in cathedrals, he says, and they accept these images and learn from them, even if they are merely the personal interpretations of the artist.

Many times in the Bible, angels tell people not to fear when people see them. Yet angels are often shown as innocent, cute creatures. Would a cute little angel need to tell people not to be afraid, Patti asks.

Patti realized through his art that some concepts of angels, like his head with six wings on it, are unreasonable. Thus accuracy is important.

Steve Swanson, KU Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship director, also believes that accuracy is important when depicting religious ideas. He agrees that some perceptions of angels are not biblical, such as cute little baby angels. Swanson attributes this to the fact that few strictly biblical artistic portrayals of angels exist.

He agrees that it is difficult to convey an image based on scripture. "Descriptions should not always be taken quite literally," Swanson said.

The angel in Patti's garage certainly is no cute, cuddly thing. The stern expression could burn a hole through shoe leather. But the holiest soles should fear not, because these lost soles have been saved from destruction by Patti and given a new life in this solemn creation.