More Inventor Interviews • Interviews With Inventors • History of Shoes

This week's feature brings us an interview with artist-inventor Juan Mejias, whose wearable shoe sculptures are both a novel marketing idea and original works of art rolled into one. There is a long-standing tradition of artists being innovators and inventors, Leonardo Da Vinci being the best-known example. We heartily support Juan in his efforts to follow in such a grand tradition.

Q: What is your background as an artist and inventor?

I was born June 25 in 1945, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I studied Political Science in college for three years in order to go to law school upon graduation. During my senior year, I reconsidered my plans and decided that becoming an artist was a better and perhaps more effective way of achieving my goals. I started studying art and music from books, which I would buy, borrow, or view in the library. I taught myself to play the flute and developed some good notions about color harmony and drawing from those books.I began by making wire sculptures, which I painted florescent colors and liked the results so much that I began to draw them in order to keep some record of them. At the same time, I began studying art from library books in order to broaden my skills. To this day (30 years later), I am still an art student.

Inventing came naturally to me since I was little; I was always looking for a faster more effective way to do everything. The first invention that I recall was substituting a propeller for a sail in a toy sailboat so that the wind would hit it, make it gyrate and with a pulley system attached to a smaller propeller in the bottom of the boat, it would be thrust forward and sail.

Q: How did the artist and inventor in you merge and does it create any conflicts?

I think there is always a bit of an inventor in every artist, since during an artist's career one of the challenges is to constantly reinvent yourself to avoid becoming predictable and to be able to communicate to the public new visions and ideas. One reason the artist and the inventor merge would be (in my case) in order to record the chronology of an invention, I would make a painting of it and later I would copyright it in order to bypass the patenting project until I could afford to build a prototype.

No, I believe they compliment each other perfectly like in the case of Da Vinci.

Q: About the shoes?

I got started with shoes looking for new and different types of sculptures. By using the shape of the shoes and altering it to look like something else, I managed to create a type of wearable art that did not eliminate the basic use of a shoe. I don't wear them because the existing ones are prototypes to be mass-produced if and when I can get venture capital or a company interested in buying my designs. I have not set a price on them yet because my original intent for those designs is other markets. If there were a serious art collector interested in them, I would consider reproducing a pair or two. The most difficult to reproduce (therefore most expensive) would be both the Golfing Shoes and the Bowling Shoes. The least difficult ones would be The Bum and the Shoendals. I also have all those designs and some new ones printed over socks. The CO2 brakes are gas powered hand-held brakes, which will stop my Race Car Shoes when they are being used as roller skates.

Q: Tell us about your ideas for a self-regenerating electric car and the interactive electronic teaching system.

A self-regenerating electric car does not have to stop to recharge. In my design, an air compressor (specially designed not to explode in case of a crash) pumps air into a turbine, which rotates and moves several alternators, which recharges the batteries while the car is still in motion. The remaining air is re-pumped back into the compressor by use of the kinetic energy generated when braking and going down hill. There is a percentage of loss of energy due to friction but it is relatively small and that allows me to use the small five hp engine in the compressor very sparsely.

The inter-active teaching system consists of a series of lights placed strategically all along the neck of a guitar or a base which will illuminate the positions for chords or individual notes that your fingers will follow in order to play music lessons or complete songs. A compact disc inserted inside the guitar will be programmed with music lessons and songs, including the rhythms and harmonies to those songs, which the musician can strum and sing to at the same time. A VCR tape or CD will be in your TV set telling you what your mistakes are and how to correct them.

Q: Any other inventions?

I have a design for a gun that will shoot a microchip into a fleeing car allowing the police to locate it at any time and avoid hazardous high-speed chases. Also a parachute that will slow the descent of a falling jet plane enough to allow the passengers to jump out in parachuted cubicles. A car alarm that uses only an automobile cassette. Car wipers that use a continuous flow of hot air preventing anything from touching your windshield (snow, rain, mud, dust, pebbles, etc.). A way of making nuclear-missile-spotting satellites obsolete as weapons of war, a florescent chess set made of screws, bolts, nuts, and other stuff you find in hardware stores that you can play in the dark with several others.

Q: How does the invention process work for you?

It works in different ways at different times. For some reason, I get diametrically opposite and unrelated ideas that don't seem to have a common thread. I might get an idea, which might need the application of digital technology (as in the case of the teaching system) without me really having any solid knowledge of that field. However, I am always convinced that by consulting the right people I will be able to get the project done.

Q: Favorite artist and inventors?

Most of the artists that have influenced me have not attained and measurable amount of fame. However, of the better-known ones I could mention, Dali, Magritte, Leonardo, Arcimboldo, Escher, some of the underground comic book artists of the 60's, some of the literary revolutionaries from my country and conceptual artists like Carlos Irizarry from Puerto Rico. As far as inventors are concerned, I am familiar with the work of Edison, Tesla, Henry, and some of the inventions done by the Japanese.

Q: What direction do you see yourself heading in?

I have no idea of what the future may hold for me due to the uncertain nature of my chosen field of action. If I get any kind of financial backing, I plan to develop as many prototypes as resources will allow.

Q: As an individual, what has it been like marketing yourself and your shoes; any horror stories or any tips?

Marketing my designs has been a very frustrating and humbling experience. I have been very close to selling my copyrights to companies like LA Gear, Kinneys and the Brown Shoe Group. I would invariably be rejected with undisclosed reasons and polite promises of re-consideration. I guess the worst horror story (I have plenty of them) is having to work in jobs where you can't realize your potential to the fullest until you are financially able to develop your inventions and give your contributions to the world.

Q: What kind of response are you getting about your shoes?

The response to my shoes has been mostly favorable. People seem to realize they are seeing something different; however, the general public seems to expect a shoe store price instead of a gallery rate. So, ironically, the same thing that makes my sculptures original is the same thing that cheapens them in the eyes of the general public.

Q: Anything you would like to add?

I have always believed that the first computer was the player piano. I would like to turn the mechanical system of that instrument into a similar digital system to be installed inside my guitar (piano, base or keyboard) to enable the lights to illuminate the chord and note patterns in music lessons and songbooks.

shoe Illustrations by Juan Mejias