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Show By John Helton and Alex Wells The Shoe Tree B etween concrete retaining wall and creek, in the shadows of a five-story hotel, buffeted by traffic | on Dear Valley Drive, between the glow of headlights and hotel televisions, below Zoom and above | Park Station, across the creek from a wide smooth sidewalk, next to a tiny, wood-chip covered nature trail, the shoe tree still grows. More than one tree, it is a block of | “ seven willows. They are wild like bad \ 2 f hair, asymmetrical like a mine | 7 V2 2 shack, stubborn like miners, half= ae dead like the old Park City. 4 eets Half-alive, like the new. ded ae The shoe tree has been here forever. Since when there was onlyacrum- mn U —s_— / bling house, railroad ties, and a yard of _ abandoned cars around it. Maybe even before that. | The cars are gone but the shoes still grow. | Jogging shoes. Steel-toed work boots. aN ~ ep = in ) 4 Cheap tennis shoes and expensive hiking shoes. High- and low-topped basketball shoes. Turf shoes. | Nike, Adidas, New Balance and No Brand. Cowboy boots lashed together with rope. Shoes that ripened before reaching the tree. Shoes that rotted once there. Shoes bleached by sun and shoes washed by rain. Retired shoes and tired shoes. Shoes roommates couldn’t stand. Shoes no one could stand in. | e Shoes impossibly high in the branches. Shoes tantalizingly low. | | | Shoes thrown like hammers. Shoes pushed like shot puts. oe | Shoes jettisoned while people pursued. Shoes Shoes that remind people of their lives every day. Shoes long forgotten. | Shoes linked by laces, spun tight around branches. Shoes suspended like half-told stories. | Shoes on the ground like fallen fruit in the leaves. New shoes on feet, not yet in bloom. The shoe tree survives, and with sole. 6L| 8661 ‘9 ISNONV| LW whose loss has never been accounted for. |
