With My Heart in My Hands is a sculpture by Willie Cole, assembled from women’s vintage, luxury shoes. To create his shoe sculptures, Cole assembles found shoes into anthropomorphic forms reminiscent of African masks and figures. With My Heart in My Hands resembles a crouched, masked figure adorned by a magnificent headdress. Cole’s use of multiples creates the conditions for viewers to reexamine their relationship to the consumer objects in the work. Each of Cole’s shoes has a history as a consumer object. Every scratch and scuff on their soles is a record of someone’s existence, a remnant of past energy. These objects are connected to a human desire for transformation; a desire also referenced in the sculpture itself, as well as in the sculptures of the West African Senufo people that inspire many of Cole’s works. Cole’s artworks exemplify the spirit, optimism, and mystery within that desire.