Hi! I’m Victoria Cherie.
I started painting shoes in 2019 but I’ve always been an artist. I liked making things, I liked painting, and shoes happened to become my canvas.
A few years later, my brother KC died.
When the anniversary of his death came around in February 2024, I knew I didn’t want to spend the entire month sitting in my grief. I thought about buying a stranger a coffee or doing something small for someone else. Then I realized I already had something I could give.
So I offered to paint children’s shoes for free.
Parents started reaching out. Foster parents reached out. Young moms reached out. I heard little pieces of children’s stories and painted something especially for them. What started as one small way of getting through a difficult month became Little Feet Big Dreams.
Eventually, more than 65 pairs of shoes were given away.
The project grew into a nonprofit, received community recognition, and even brought a PBS camera crew into my home. For a while, I thought growing meant turning it into something bigger.
But here I am saying I don’t really want to run an organization… I just want to paint.
So, Little Feet Big Dreams has returned to what made it meaningful in the first place: a small annual giving project centered around February. And I’ve returned to being what I was before all the titles and paperwork, an artist.
Today, I paint childhood as I remember it, and as it changes with me. My work lives mostly on little canvas shoes: familiar animals, ordinary moments and the kinds of things that somehow stay with us long after childhood is over.
Along with paint, I’ve started using hand embroidery and beading. When a pair is claimed, I redesign the inside sole to embroidered size, and child’s name if that’s what the adult asks for.
Some pairs are meant to be worn. Some might end up sitting on a shelf years from now, long after they fit, as an heirloom to a milestone moment or remembrance to a nursery theme.
They’re little pieces of art made to be worn, displayed, remembered, and passed on.
