It is often the case that the greatest form of expression presents itself in ways that arrive naturally, from style and choice of music, to the movies you watch and the things you hear.
For the owners of Six Hundred Four – a stand-out independent shoe store just across the way from the city’s bustling touristic core – that is essentially what drove them to open a shoe store that highlights the work of local artists.
Choice.
Giving their customers and the artists they work with the freedom to express themselves as they see fit.
It is only fitting, then, that their latest collaboration is with a local artist that knows a thing or two about finding your voice in all the noise.
Priscilla Yu is a Vancouver-born freelance illustrator and designer who calls herself an artist that “paints worlds that appears to dwell in a strange gravity.” What that means, exactly, is up to the viewer to interpret, as with any great piece of art. But for Yu, she explains her style as employing geometric shapes to challenge perspectives and expand the constraints of the obstructed mind.
“Her art is so much different than any of the art pieces in there,” says James Lepp, founder of Six Hundred Four of the shoes the store currently carries. Lepp started the store six-and-a-half months ago following an esteemed career as a professional golfer.
“I think our store is a new take to the token tourist shop – it’s a tourist shop in which locals can shop at, as well. It’s not like you’re buying a typical tourist [trinket],” he says of the store, located at 151 Cambie St. – a neighborhood traditionally known as a stop for tourists to pick up souvenir keychains.
“There’s only one spot you can get something like this and it’s right here,” he said. “When people go back up the street or to Tokyo [they can] tell their families that it’s going to be unique to any other store they’ve visited, ever.”
As a kid, Yu spent a large part of time in her bedroom – making a habit of rearranging furniture and assembling outfits. Arranging various colors, forms and textures provided the young artist – a near-absolute visual thinker if there ever was one – to internalize combinations that were both intuitive and well thought out.
Her inherent visual and at once logical mind drove her to pursue abstract art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2013. She has since exhibited in Los Angeles, Chicago and all over Vancouver, where she currently resides. Her work has been featured on Booooooom, Uppercasemagazine and Upperplayground, among others.
“It’s kind of like a puzzle,” says Yu, painting under the bright rays of Vancouver’s summer sun Wednesday. “I guess I wouldn’t necessarily request anybody try to decipher any symbol in the paintings, but take in the visceral color combination and the feeling from the colors in the paintings.”
Usually, her geometric-inspired work, is an amalgamation of imagery she spots in the world around her. Her latest, a commissioned piece, to be imprinted on a pair of kicks at Six Hundred Four, is inspired by something a little out of this world – namely, space.
Yu credits her parents, who are from Hong Kong, with having instilled a sense resourceful creativity. “I would say my work is definitely more influenced by being alone, growing up as an only child being surround by a mix of culture and trying to create my own voice.”
And as for those stunning shoes to be finalized shortly?
“I want people to get more awareness with wearing more color in their day,” she says. “I want people to have these be their power shoes.”
You can learn more about Priscilla Yu and her work at http://priscillayu.ca/
