Grab a selection of shoes from your local thrift store or from a student's collection (or feet) and set shoes up on various levels to create a shoe still-life display. Angle the shoes, lay some down, take some tongues out and tie and untie laces to create enough detail and interest for line drawings. Use the display for a contour line drawing -- where the student does not take the pencil tip off the paper from start to finish -- colored pencil drawings, pen and ink drawings or painting. Ask students to focus on sections of the still-life or on the display as a whole.
Create a three-dimensional shoe collage using a large sheet of plywood, various shoes, acrylic paints, hot glue or epoxy and paint rollers and brushes. Work on the collage as a group, or work on individual boards. Once the wood is painted with a solid color, shoes can be applied to the board in any unorganized or organized fashion with epoxy or hot glue. Use the shoe colors to add interest and design details, or drizzle paints over the collection of shoes to tie the project together.
Wrap one shoe with decorative gold, silver or colored wire to develop an eye-catching sculpture for an interior or exterior space. Decorate a fancy pump with beads and gold wiring for an elegant art project or use copper wire on leather work boots for a more rugged project that may be fit into an outdoor garden display. Anchor ends of wire by twisting it around itself or use a small upholstery nail in the sole of the shoe. Place an interior project under a glass display dome to give it more importance.
Purchase plain white sneakers or locate solid colored canvas or plastic shoes at a thrift store. Decorate the shoes with fabric inks, paints and markers. Choose a theme for the project to dictate the look of each shoe. For example, use a plain canvas shoe and apply fabric paint to mimic a classic fine art image such as "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, or use an man's dress shoe and paint with law-related or police-related imagery and title it "Crime Scene." Shoes may also be painted to express the owner's journey through life, a collection of his favorite things or a series of images that reflect where the artist wants to go from here.