An Interview with Designer Rob Phillips
Since we opened Strawberry Mountain on Santa Fe at the beginning of 2021, we’ve been so fortunate to be a part of the Arts District Community. Up and down these blocks there are so many artists, creatives, and just out-there thinkers doin’ their thing, many of whom have become our friends. One of those people is Rob Phillips, creator and owner of “OG-HIGH”. Run out of a studio space in the Bitfactory building just a few doors down from us, “OG-HIGH” is a brand focused on creating unique distressed clothing and sneakers. His ability to “age” a pair of brand new shoes, or aftfully distress a pair of vintage Carhartt double-knee pants is second to none. Rob has incredible vision when he speaks about his work, his process, and what he hopes to achieve, and he’s become one of our best friends on the block. We sat down with Rob to get his perspective in greater detail. Enjoy!
Strawberry Mountain: How would you describe your art/craft?
Rob Phillips: My art/craft/work is a reflection of ones individual act to survive. It’s a culmination of what I’ve been through and what we all go through. In practice I distress/deteriorate apparel and create patterns to represent how connected to decay we all are.
SM: Why do you do what you do?
RP: I do what I do as an attempt to make it cool to bare degradation. So that my nephew, as he ages, isn’t victimized or judged by the tear in his jeans or stain on his kicks. I remember being laughed at in grade school because of it so my thoughts are like, make it cool.
SM: What is your artistic background?
RP: Classically trained human. Lol. I was an athlete my whole life. Played two collegiate sports, track and football, and was a science major. Never thought I would ever paint, perform, or design. I had a chance to play football professionally, and the day of my very first game I decided to skip the game and join a few of my art bros in an attempt to place street art in a gallery setting. I was given a 12x12 brick wall, some flat white and black paint, and a paint brush. Then was urged by them to let my inhibitions take over. It was like an exercise. I always had a love for street art and contemporary art, but dropped the dreams of drawing to sprint and tackle. I kept a book of rhymes I composed full of poetry and decided to etch some of my lyrics on the wall and perform it as a spoken word piece for the exhibition attendees. One of the top curators in the city of Omaha at the time, Hesse McGraw, was present and offered me an internship at the Bemis Center of Contemporary Arts. There I honed my skills in more of the diplomatic aspects of public art and exhibitions for 2 1/2 years. Over that time span I worked in conjunction with some highly visible contemporary artists, some major multi-year projects, and learned more than I could digest at the time. Then over the next decade I traveled the country working on projects, doing mural work, and discovering what exactly my art was by way of assisting my peers creating, while taking periodic breaks to devote time to family.
SM: What do you want people to know about you as a person and as an artist?
RP: I have always been a community first/centered person. From the times of volunteering with my mother as a youth to working on seven-figure opportunities for disenfranchised factions of society, and that will never change! I love me some “us!” And as an artist/designer/creative person, my goal is to highlight the commonalities within all walks of life to show we all venture down similar paths of discovery, have similar bouts of misfortune, and that our mutual aesthetic is what makes us human!
SM: What inspires your work?
RP: Kind of a tough question because my work embodies blue collar struggle and the natural material conditions associated with the aging process. But I am also heavily moved by form, type, and architectural design. I can’t help but tip my hat to those who build structures and those who finance them. I find myself moved by stories of personal triumph and gain. I funnel a lot of this sort of energy into my designs, ideas, works.
SM: Who inspires you and why?
RP: My parents. My father was a caterer/chef who would invest his spare time into architectural design. He would buy all the supplies he needed to create these structures and draft buildings I had never seen before. And my mom has worked for the City of Omaha for the large portion of my life and she was a poet and author and would write for hours when I was a youth. Both of them decided to live a normal, civil existence and not one paved by their artistic gifts. And I selfishly want to show them it’s possible to be a creator full time. With little to no assistance from non-creative outlets.
SM: How would you describe your personal style of dress?
RP: Hmmm, my style is a mix of athleisure, Americana, workwear, and techwear. I blend in an occasional oversize graphic tee (shout out to my plug Nadia) but my essentials are very basic, loose, and utility focused.
SM: Who are your fashion icons?
RP: Mark Ecko, Tom Ford, Virgil Abloh, Tinker Hatfield, Jun Takahashi. Love them all for similar reasons, but yeah these are my goats.
SM: What is your goal as an artist?
RP: To survive and create pieces that people can use to do the exact same. Nothing we might not need in 10 years.
SM: Are there any projects or goals you are currently working towards that you’d like to share about?
RP: MORE POP-UPS!! I love just showing off what I do. Working on designs for my own original shoe. One that will be a mix of 80’s basketball and 90’s tech. Some cologne which I have been at for a while is almost done curing. Smells like patchouli, bergamot, and caramel. Offering it to both men and women. Umm…learning some new techniques for mending shashiko and boro. Truth be told, I am really always down to try something new and interesting, and I’m always researching fashion design/maintenance, in order to find my own ways to keep what I do the same no matter what it projects as. My work needs to have a silver lining, and for whatever reason I feel when I cannot connect my work to prior works I feel anyone could have created it. And thats a problem for me.
SM: Are there any questions that have not been asked you would like to share and answer?
RP: I pose a challenge to whomever is reading this to find some time to step out on a limb and try something brand new! ✌🏾❤️💪🏾📈
Thanks for reading! You can check out more of Rob’s work on his Instagram @og___high, or come see him during one of the First Friday events here in the Santa Fe Arts District at his space at Bitfactory Studios. Hit him up if you want to see his space or commission some work!
Until next time,
Be excellent to each other
