So he hit you up to do a shoe?

Aaron Rose: Yeah. The problem with most art shoes is that they’re totally unwearable. I wanted to make a shoe that was not just something that kids collect, but maybe something that will inspire them to go out and create something.

The sole design is kind of crazy.

Aaron Rose: Teenage Teardrops is a record label that my friend Cali runs, and 96 Tears is a scooter club that I’m in. It made sense to put teardrops into the sole.

But then the packaging is where other artists really came into play?

Aaron Rose: The box is one of my paintings, and then I worked with this designer named Keith Scharwath to design it to look like these shoes have been sitting around for years. There’s also a kind of “call to action” zine that comes in the box that has all these D.I.Y. art tips, and artists like Barry McGee, KAWS, and Mike Mills did pages to inspire people to go out and make things. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but I want these projects to be a kick in the butt to kids to get out there and basically put me out of business. That would really excite me in a weird way.

That hand-painted aesthetic comes up a lot in your work.

Aaron Rose: Yeah, when I was living in New York I would just go to businesses who had crappy signs and say, “Look, I’ll fix your sign,” just for fun. And I still do that now. Me and my friend Alexis Ross go around L.A. and paint signs for businesses whose signs are falling apart. It’s like community beautification for me; I’ll give them a nice hand-painted sign so they don’t go buy some shitty vinyl sign. Home // CELEBRITIES // THE SHOTCALLER // Aaron Rose