BOTHELL, Wash. — Even from a young age, Hillary Garrett has always had an outside-the-lines approach to creating art.
"I've always been self-taught," Garrett said. "Like, almost entirely. I took one community college class, and honestly, I really didn't like it, because they tend to teach in a way that's, there's just one way to go about this thing. And like, there's so many ways to go about this thing."
But when the single mom went looking to turn her talent into a business, she didn't look up for inspiration. Instead, she looked down.
"My company is mymagicmakery.com,” Garrett said. "I think my first pair took me something like seven hours. Because it is, it's weird. When you're used to flat canvas painting, it's a very different canvas. The paint that I work with, when it dries, it's made to be malleable, so made to like, essentially bend and flex and move, like if you're wearing shoes, like when you walk, so the paint does not fall off at a race."
Though her customers very, the majority of her hand-painted clogs are ordered from first responders.
"I get a lot of nurses because it's kind of the only interesting thing they could do with their outfit, right? They have to wear scrubs that are, you know, kind of boring. Not a lot to work with. Their shoes however, like, they can go crazy and that's where I come in," Garrett said. "I also do custom orders. So, anything that you can dream, I can paint it. And that's always really fun. Being able to create things for people that they couldn't otherwise create for themselves, but they can kind of envision it. And that's the most satisfying process."
"It's something that's entirely custom and somebody dreamed it and I'm trying to create that for them so I think part of it is just like I want to get this so right because it makes a makes them very happy at the end."
Happy clients and happy feet — Hillary Garrett is spreading her art, one step at a time.
"I believe in this just quirky niche ability to put art in the world."
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