Amanda Yoakum was born in 1983 in Ohio. Her time in the Midwest was short lived, as her family relocated to New Jersey when she was a small child. Growing up in New Jersey, Amanda had New York City at her fingertips and began feeling its influence at a young age. She began painting with watercolors and would later discover her love for acrylics.
In 2002, Amanda moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design and pursue a career in fashion design. Feeling a bit jaded about the fashion industry, upon graduation she decided to return to her roots and began painting again. However, the influence of fashion design was strong and facilitated the marriage of her passion to paint and design. In 2008, Amanda began using sneakers as her canvas. She started with just simply painting her imagery on the shoes and then expanded to doing reconstruction and utilizing different materials and textures as well.
Amanda had her first exhibition at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in 2010. The exhibition was a display of her shoes and also photographs of the collaborations she had done with VANS shoe company. Her work was well received and earned Amanda a feature article in the New York Times.
Feeling that the sneakers were not completely gratifying her hunger for painting, Amanda decided to expand her work and include canvas portraits as well. She has a tendency to work in pairs, grouping a single painting with a pair of sneakers; the paintings almost communicate as the inspiration for each pair of shoes.
Amanda continues to experiment with various materials and techniques to keep her work constantly evolving. Rich with bold colors, her work plays between realism and illustration and is even somewhat satirical. She hopes that the experience she has gained working on the 3-D canvas of a sneaker, will help her delve into the development of more structural canvases to paint on.
In 2002, Amanda moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design and pursue a career in fashion design. Feeling a bit jaded about the fashion industry, upon graduation she decided to return to her roots and began painting again. However, the influence of fashion design was strong and facilitated the marriage of her passion to paint and design. In 2008, Amanda began using sneakers as her canvas. She started with just simply painting her imagery on the shoes and then expanded to doing reconstruction and utilizing different materials and textures as well.
Amanda had her first exhibition at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in 2010. The exhibition was a display of her shoes and also photographs of the collaborations she had done with VANS shoe company. Her work was well received and earned Amanda a feature article in the New York Times.
Feeling that the sneakers were not completely gratifying her hunger for painting, Amanda decided to expand her work and include canvas portraits as well. She has a tendency to work in pairs, grouping a single painting with a pair of sneakers; the paintings almost communicate as the inspiration for each pair of shoes.
Amanda continues to experiment with various materials and techniques to keep her work constantly evolving. Rich with bold colors, her work plays between realism and illustration and is even somewhat satirical. She hopes that the experience she has gained working on the 3-D canvas of a sneaker, will help her delve into the development of more structural canvases to paint on.