Art in the bag

Dave Brooks

It’s kind of like carrying a Picasso into a nightclub. Or like seeing

a woman stop to search a Basquiat original for a clove cigarette,

then lighting up and strolling through Naples with her masterpiece

under her arm.

Whoever thought a purse could carry so many meanings?

Maxine Orange did, and she created a place in which high-stakes

fashion blurs abstract acrylics into a new way of thinking about

public art.

Her latest clothing line fuses canvas from her original oil

paintings onto handmade leather bags and wallets. The results are

wild designs, juxtaposing the subtleties of solid black and white

leather with the recklessness of fluorescent abstract art.

In the bubble the 26-year-old has created, the world is a giant

studio with dozens of walls walking around the street displaying

modern functional art.

“It’s spreading art through the world by simply carrying it down

the street instead of hanging it on a wall in a gallery,” she said

from her home studio in downtown Huntington Beach.

Orange, a native of Alabama, made her way to Huntington Beach with

her boyfriend Neal Burns two years ago after a brief stint in

Manhattan. In college at the University of Alabama, she approached a

friend who was about to discard an art project, and asked if she

could cut up the canvas material and make it into clothing.

“I had taken a sewing class and was planning to make a skirt,” she

said.

But somehow she got a bag instead -- and then, like all cool

things, everybody wanted one.

Now she spends her free time creating artwork to keep up with the

demand for the bags. After she’s done with her day job as a graphic

designer, she heads to the gym, prepares some dinner and then sets up

her canvas in the living room in front of the television. Orange said

she spends hours, even weeks, working on paintings she knows will one

day meet their demise.

“I am past the cutting up part. It was hard at first, but it’s

being cut up because I wanted it to be cut,” she said. “I just have

to paint to make something that is going to look good on a bag and

make sure I have a lot going on.”

That means a wide range of colors and less reliance on design and

pattern frequency. While her early pieces were almost completely

crafted from canvas paintings, her latest line implements smaller

strips of canvas running up a more traditional leather bag.

“I’m anticipating that her new stuff will be much more versatile

than the ones we have been carrying,” said Lindsay Daniel, the owner

of Poppy’s of Atlanta Boutique.

The bag’s attitude still scares off some buyers, Daniel said, but

the embracing of Bohemian styles by celebrities, such as Sienna

Miller and the Olsen twins, is priming the look Orange is selling.

“The bags make the statement that you’re not scared to funk it up

a little with your accessories,” Daniel said.

Orange said she plans to start making belts and dog collars, and

she sell copies of her original art on prints and note cards. She

hopes to open her own boutique some day, selling designer clothing

alongside original art.

In the meantime, though, she’ll continue to enjoy the global

gallery she is putting in place, displaying her works on women from

all walks of life. It’s like a never-ending art opening -- minus the

wine and cheese.

To see more of Orange’s bags, visit o7www.maxineorange.comf7.