Meet Sean Fontenot | Custom Sneaker Artist aka Color Me Fresh

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sean Fontenot and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean, why did you pursue a creative career?
I’ve always been a creative person and loved to paint and draw, but never considered it for a career. After a very short stint of trying to sale my art as 18-year-old, I quit within three months; I was only concerned with making money. After a 12-year hiatus, towards the end of 2019, I got inspired to pick up the paint brush again. I started painting more regularly and creating custom designs, then COVID hit. I wasn’t able to work my job, which allowed me to paint all day and all night. I realized that was my safe place, my sense of peace, the excitement of my day, and that’s when I knew I was finally in pursuit of my career.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I like to think that I am different. I am primarily a custom sneaker artist. My style focuses on anime, cartoons, and video games. Much of my work is story driven and highly detailed. That is what people recognize most. One of the things I push a lot is to encourage others to be creative and don’t confine themselves to a box. My most creative pieces aren’t wearable. I have taken something that is, in most cases, an essential article of clothing and turned it into an art piece. So, these shoes can actually just sit on display and you won’t feel bad about it because it is your art and you don’t have to worry about only wearing a pair of shoes once or twice. I am heavily influenced by hip hop, black culture, and Asian cultures. I grew up a kung fu and samurai fanatic, Bruce Lee was my guy. So I am most excited about my original story “KILO47” inspired by my love for hip hop and a mixing of cultures. I use the shoes to tell the story versus putting it in a comic strip or manga. The shoes are the comic for me. They allow me to showcase different elements and textures on a 3-dimensional object. Creativity helped me to get to where I am. I didn’t want to do just what everyone else was doing. I wanted to get out of the box, with designs, material, and concepts. It definitely isn’t easy, but I have fallen in love with the process. I am constantly learning and trying to evolve. My style and storytelling has changed over the past 18 months. The biggest lesson I have learned is there is no such thing as a mistake in art. Instead, they can be used as opportunities to improve. So instead of looking at them as mistakes, I look at them as lessons.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to shoutout my wife and son. They give me reason and they are why I go so hard. My wife and I had literally just moved into our first home and a week later found out she was pregnant. It was a blessing. But the pandemic started about month later and I started to stress because I was no longer able to work. As a new husband, soon to be father, and a man – it hit me hard. But, my wife encouraged me and supported me from day one, pregnant and all. We knew things wouldn’t be easy, but she held it down. She told me she wanted our child to see that their father was not just a hard-worker, but someone that loved what they did and made it happen. That’s who I do it for. But, how do I keep it going? My family, other artists, and my followers. Feeling the love I get from the art community has been amazing. I am honestly so humbled by the positive interactions and feedback from supporters because I didn’t think it would come. I mean its one thing when your wife and family say how much they like your stuff, but you lowkey expect that of them haha. But for strangers to recognize, it makes it worth it. Oh yeah, and shoutout to the haters too. The trolls give me a good laugh every now and then.

Website: www.cmefresh.com

Instagram: @colormefresh

Twitter: @colormefresh