From our Purveyor of Accessories:
I was first introduced to wood artist Denise Meyers through a blog I read faithful, Maverick Style. Enamored by her work, I immediately visited DCM Squared's website and drank in every image, amazed at what I saw! Then, I read her fascinating blog (especially enjoyed the entry for July 8, 2011), interviews, and videos. I'm hooked. You will be too!

In Artist Denise Meyer's Own Words:

"DCM Squared was established in 2008 after I was inspired to begin creating a new line of artwork that combined art with function in an accessory that is as beautiful as it is functional. After all, you don't buy a new outfit or a new piece of jewelry just to leave it at home, so why should your art collection be any different? I design each bag to be displayed in your home right alongside the rest of your art work, and when you need the perfect accessory for an evening out, you have just the right handbag to help you make you the center of attention wherever you go.

My work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Craft Show, the Smithsonian Craft2Wear show, the Palm Beach Craft Show, the Washington Craft Whos, the American Crafts Festival at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and tis fall, will be seen at the Sausalito Arts Festival and the Western Design Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Michelle Obama, Sandra Bullock, Kyra Sedgwick, Drew Barrymore and Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor have my work in their collections as well."

{>}Click here to take a tour of DCM Squared and meet artist Denise Meyers.

Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Written by Mary Welch

March 16, 2010

Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

“I try to create art that celebrates the connection between the natural world and mankind’s relationship to Mother Earth” says Denise Meyers, whose body of work ranges from her intricately detailed wildlife gourds and paintings, to limited edition handbags. “I am fascinated by the natural world in general and wildlife in particular,” she says, “because I have discovered just how much we are like animals and how much animals are like us.”

Meyers is inspired by the unity of knowledge, which suggests that all of life is connected. She recently began work on a series of wood-burned birch panels.

Womenetics: How did you get started in art?
Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Denise Meyers: I have been an artist most of my life and was an art major my first year in college. I shifted gears and went into the film business, first as an assistant to TV and film producers, then later, as a story analyst for independent film companies.

I eventually got so burned out by it that I went to work at a bookstore where I saw my first gourds and decided to learn everything I could about them. It was rough going at first, since gourds were not as popular then as they are now. I still managed to accomplish the impossible by selling gourd art for thousands of dollars and landing in major Southwest art galleries and publications.

Womenetics: You started painting gourds and turned them into expensive works of art. How did that come about?
Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Meyers: When I first started doing gourds, no one even knew what they were. There was only one other artist I knew of who was doing them at what I would call a fine craft level, so I had no one to pattern myself after, and that proved to be an enormous blessing. The sky was truly the limit when it came to what I could do with a gourd because there was no one there to tell me what could and could not be done with one. Well, that's not entirely true.

There was a huge number of people who told me that gourds would never be considered art, and that I would be better off becoming a painter. But I felt that gourds could be art, and I set out to prove it by creating one gourd a year priced at $20,000 or more, and I sold them year after year. They are one-of- a-kind pieces that can take up to four months to create, but it has been worth it just to show people that art isn't limited to an oil painting or a bronze if it’s done well.

Womenetics: Were you always inspired by animals and Native American art?
Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Meyers: I have always loved animals, so becoming a wildlife artist has been a very natural choice. The Native American thing was interesting because I've loved cowboys and Indians since I was a kid. I was the only girl in my extended family, and my uncles and their friends weren't much older than I was so I was the ultimate tomboy. If you didn't roughhouse, you had no one to play with.

As I grew older I developed a real fascination with Native American culture and started showing my art at Native American events in California and Colorado. Then about 10 years ago I found out that I had great-grandmothers on both sides who were Native American; one was part Ute and one was part Iroquois.

Womenetics: Tell us about your purses.
Meyers: The purses are one-of-kind and limited edition handbags made from birch, which allows me to wood burn the images in detail with a temperature controlled wood burning tool. It’s like sculpting on a flat surface, which enables me to create the illusion of things like bone structure, musculature, feathers, fur, even fish scales.

Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

The bags are all hand-assembled, hand-finished, and hand-lined, and some have a matching, handmade clutch and a hand-beaded handle. We also have a less expensive line of hand-painted canvas totes.

Womenetics: Why did you start painting purses?
Meyers: I am always looking for ways to challenge myself as an artist, and it hit me one day that most of the tools and equipment I use would allow me to pursue a career as a painter, but with wood as my "canvas."

I have done a number of large-scale paintings and they sell well, but I was also looking for a way to do something a bit more practical, especially in this economy. People aren't buying art the way they used to, although it seems as though that is starting to change for the better. It also hit me like a ton of bricks that people would spend thousands of dollars on art they left at home. Why not have a piece of art that just so happens to be a handbag? It’s art people can enjoy in their homes and be that one-of-a-kind accessory that makes a woman the center of attention on an evening out.

Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Womenetics: What makes for a great purse?
Meyers: Let me put it this way. I sold one of my first handbags to a woman who informed me she would never use it as a purse. She wanted it for the art. I told her once she owned it, she could do anything she wanted with it. Well a few weeks later, she called and told me that she took it to lunch with her one day, and she got stopped on her way into the restaurant, while waiting to be seated in the restaurant, and in the bathroom of the restaurant, all by women who wanted to know where she got her handbag. That makes a great handbag in my estimation.

Womenetics: What is the most challenging part of being an artist?
Meyers: Art is a really bad business model. One year you get accepted into a show. The next year you don't. So the contacts you made and the clients who began to develop lose interest in your work. Or you get into a show you think you will do well at and you don't, then you go to a show you almost canceled and do really well -- which is another reason why we decided to start moving into handbags. The fashion business may be as fickle as any other business out there, but it’s also a business. If it doesn't work, you don't do it anymore, whereas artists will keep trying the same bad show over and over again and hope for a different result every time. I know because I have done it myself.

Snapshot: Denise Meyers - The Handbag as Art

Womenetics: What are your future career plans and goals?
Meyers: We hope to get the bags into department stores and boutiques and eventually become the next Judith Leiber or Timmy Woods, handbag designers we are frequently compared to.

Womenetics: Who is your favorite artist?
Meyers: That is easy. Auguste Rodin. I can see his work a million times and be mesmerized and enthralled every single time.

Mary Welch is Atlanta city editor of Womenetics: and a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. She was editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman magazine and editor of Business to Business and Catalyst magazines.

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