Art becomes fashion in a new collection by Austin-based actor Kelly Frye Campbell. The Kelly Campbell Collection, a luxury handbag line made from working artist studio canvases, officially debuted this May at Paggi House during the collaborative art show Friends Fair.
The collection consists of structured handbags handcrafted from canvases artists use during their studio practice. The surfaces are covered in paint marks, brushstrokes, color tests, and the odd sketch made in the course of creating other work. Each bag is one of a kind, and all are priced at $750.
The bag's raw form highlights the theme of reuse.Photo by Baptiste Zenko/Zenko Photography
The collection launched with collaborations featuring several Austin-based artists. A Houston expansion is already on the calendar: an event at McClain Gallery on October 2 will coincide with the Untitled Art Fair. There, Campbell will debut a collaboration with Houston artist Aaron Parazette.
Campbell says she first conceived of a handbag line built around materials from the performing arts world roughly 15 years ago, while living in Los Angeles and focusing on her acting career. The initial idea was to use backdrops from Broadway performances.
"I loved the idea that someone could carry a unique, chic bag that was also a piece of performing arts history," she says.
The concept stayed dormant until someone else's work reactivated it in a new form. A visit to the studio of Austin artist Sara Carter provided the spark. Carter has a series of abstract paintings in which she recreates paint splatters, spills, and other incidental marks on her studio floor.
"She was explaining her 'Stories From The Floor' series, and it dawned on me that I could revive my old handbag idea, but instead of sourcing retired performance backdrops, I could collaborate directly with living artists using the canvases from their own creative process," Campbell says.
To create the bags, each participating artist receives a raw canvas and is invited to use it however they choose during their regular practice: as a drop cloth, a test surface, or a traditional painting ground. When the artist considers it complete, Campbell cuts it into pattern pieces, trying to preserve the most visually striking parts of the canvas, assembles and hand-brands each bag, and the artist signs the interior.
Artists can do whatever they want with the canvas, including painting a recognizable picture.Photo by Baptiste Zenko/Zenko Photography
Artists receive 20 percent of every sale, with an additional five percent going to a nonprofit of their choice. A portion of proceeds also goes toward public school arts funding.
"I firmly believe the arts should be accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford them," says Campbell.
Campbell tested out some prototypes at Aspen Art Fair and Untitled Houston before the official launch here in Austin.
"Complete strangers kept stopping me to ask about them," she says. "That gave me the confidence to move forward." The Paggi House debut confirmed the demand. "The response has exceeded my expectations... KCC bags [were] flying off the walls all weekend."
Campbell moved to Austin a few years ago and found herself surrounded by this city's "incredibly generous and collaborate arts community," she says, largely because of her husband Nick Campbell's work as a local art advisor.
"If this idea hadn't happened in Austin," Campbell adds, "I genuinely don't think it would exist."
The collection is available now at kellycampbellcollection.com, with future artist collaborations and international expansion planned.
