Julie Blackmon

Ruby Slippers , 2026

archival pigment print

Available at 28 x 26 (edition of 10), 39 x 36 (edition of 10), 48 x 44 (edition of 10)

My sister found these worn-out ruby slippers sitting by her neighbor’s trash a few weeks ago. They’d been worn and passed down through three sisters, now all grown out of them. - Julie Blackmon It made me think about The Wizard of Oz, about what the slippers meant to us as kids and how that meaning changes over time. Not just a prop, but something more like an emotional artifact. Something you absorb early, before you even know why it matters. Back then it was all about the color and magic, the pull of somewhere else. But later it circles back. It changes without you noticing. The slippers stop being about escape and start being about something else. About wanting to feel centered, to understand where you are in the middle of things. The ruby slippers aren’t so much about getting somewhere else anymore, but just about that quiet realization you already know the way back.

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