One of a kind, never mass produced. Upcycled with waste paint.

Upcycled hand-painted clothing hanging on a rail in the Maximus Art studio

Wearable art, rescued paint

Upcycled, one-of-a-kind clothing and small original art. Painted by hand, never mass produced.

About

Two kinds of waste, one studio

Maximus Art is an art practice that turned into a wardrobe. I upcycle clothing using the waste paint left over from my own painting and printmaking — saving garments from landfills, and keeping paint out of pipes and water systems where it does real damage.

Everything here is made in the same room. The clothing is upcycled or hand-sewn from reclaimed fabric, painted and hand-printed with lino cuts that frequently include cats. The art is small, original, and one of a kind. Both sides of the practice feed each other, and neither one produces something that had to be made new.

See the Process
Hand-painting a reclaimed cotton tee with saved studio paint
The Process

How a piece gets made

“Nothing gets bought new, and nothing usable gets thrown out. That is the whole rule.”

It starts with what is already here. Garments are sourced secondhand, and fabric too worn to wear gets cut down and hand-sewn into totes, panels and trousers. At the same time, the paint left on the palette at the end of a painting session gets scraped and jarred instead of rinsed away.

Then the two meet. Each garment is painted by hand with that saved paint, or block-printed with a lino cut carved in the studio. Every piece is finished one at a time, which is exactly why no two of them come out the same.

What we stand on

What We Do

Upcycled, Never New 01
Rescued, not manufactured

Upcycled, Never New

Every garment starts life somewhere else. Shirts, sweatshirts and denim are sourced secondhand, and anything that cannot be worn as-is gets cut down and hand-sewn into something that can. Nothing here was made new to be sold.

Waste Paint, Reused 02
The leftovers are the design

Waste Paint, Reused

Paint left on the palette at the end of a session does not go down the drain and it does not go in the bin. It gets scraped, jarred and saved, and then it becomes the design on a garment. The color you are wearing is the color that was going to be thrown away.

One of a Kind 03
No restocks, no repeats

One of a Kind

Each piece is painted or printed by hand, one at a time. There is no production run and no second identical version waiting in a warehouse. When a piece sells, that is the end of it.

Non-Gendered by Design 04
Cut for people, not categories

Non-Gendered by Design

Everything is sized and cut to be worn by whoever wants it. Relaxed shapes, honest measurements, and no separate sections — pick the fit you like and wear it how you like.

Original Art & Prints 05
Where the paint comes from

Original Art & Prints

The clothing exists because the art practice does. Small mixed media pieces, original paintings, and hand-pulled limited edition lino cuts are all made in the same studio, from the same materials, by the same hands.

On paper and canvas

Small works and hand-pulled prints.

Originals, studies and limited edition lino cuts — made with the same paint and the same hands as the clothing. Small enough for a shelf, a desk, or the last empty spot on the wall.

Vibrant paint strokes on raw cotton fabric in studio light Paint-stained brushes resting on upcycled cotton fabric
Anti Fast Fashion

Clothes out of the landfill, paint out of the water.

Clothing is thrown away faster than it can break down, and the paint rinsed out of brushes ends up in pipes and water systems it was never meant to enter. This studio exists in the gap between those two problems — every garment here was already made, and every color on it was already mixed.

For people who want funky, one-of-a-kind clothes without adding to the pile.

Get in touch

Take home something that exists once

Questions about sizing, a commission, or a piece you saw and cannot stop thinking about? Send a message — it comes straight to the studio.

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