We recently connected with Christy Phillipps and have shared our conversation below.

Christy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My art career began in film and videography at S.U.N.Y. Purchase College NY. Purchase was a well-equipped school, because of Rockefeller’s initiation and Pepsico across the street continued support financially. In my time at Purchase, my graduating class turned out the likes of Wesley Snipes, Stanley Tucci, and Edie Falco. The resources available to me were incredible. Film, Photography, and Printmaking was where I spent my time. I donned a new major with the Dean “intermedia” which allowed me to bounce in many differing majors at college. I created many wild installations on the school grounds and in the forests in Westchester County, using film loop projectors and scrims from Rosebrand in NYC. I was picked at the early age of 19, by John Hanhardt the curator of film/Video at the Whitney Museum to participate in a Video installation show in the Whitney Museum then traveled to the Pompidou Museum in Paris, I was the youngest participant and being an artist and student I could not afford to fly to Paris so had many telephone interviews instead.

When I graduated college I was disheartened to find out how expensive it is to rent the equipment I had at college at my disposal. I worked within the film industry, and silkscreen printmaking for a while in NYC. My boyfriend and I were living in an unhealthy loft in Brooklyn, in a lawsuit about the fumes we were inhaling from an industrial military dry cleaning plant below us. A friend came over and told us our skin was green and we needed to go.

Having grown up in NYC when I was 10 my Mom moved my 3 siblings and me to family property on Martha’s Vineyard where we all went to elementary school and High School. We decided to return to detox there and moved there for three years, got married and I had my first child there. We lived off the land. Fished, and gathered seafood, oysters, and clams. Had gardens and cultivated our food.

It was on Martha’s Vineyard that I got my first industrial sewing machine and taught myself how to sew. I began with leather hats, I don’t know why, but this taught me a lot about pattern making and difficult sewing. My husband was making tiles using clay he gathered from the Wampanoag Indians. Creating intricate rug patterns and also he was a painter making his oil paints. I was working on running The Field Gallery, turning around a somewhat dilapidated gallery into a thriving happening scene with weekly rotating artist parties. It was an exciting time.
I made my clothing and began to get recognition.

My son was born on Halloween. Naturally, I began making costumes for him. This grew to making costumes for my friend’s children and schools. I developed a line of easy-to-wear cape costumes that had kids in mind. After the 1989 Earthquake in San Francisco, we decided to move out there as my husband, thought there would be a lot of repair tile work there. He could paint and show more easily.

I worked in SF for many manufacturing companies, big and small. I got my education by working within my chosen field. I was working for a company making sportswear in Potrero Hill. I was in charge of supplying these 21 sewing shops with the necessary goods to produce the sportswear. I took my ideas to the sewing shops and they began manufacturing my capes. I pounded the pavement with my son in a stroller, selling to stores on both coasts. I eventually sold large amounts to Nordstroms and FAO Swartz in NYC. I traveled and did shows East and West Coasts. In this time I learned that women were less likely to buy my $20.00 cape for their child. They wanted something for themselves.

I then moved into women’s and men’s clothing. My sister was a dressage horse rider and one day she asked me to make her a wool jacket, one she could wash and dry. This led me to use Military wool blankets that I would hand die in my washing machine using eco-friendly dies, I made all sorts of men’s and women’s wool jackets, for horseback riding, Sailing, Skiing, and Boarding. They were colorful, I had 52 colors. I was asked to attend Olympic horse events but discovered I had too many choices and everyone at my shows would pick custom colors instead of the premade wool jackets. I ended up making only custom coats.

I longed to manufacture a product I didn’t have to sew myself. Then came the dream I had in 2013, in which I was making products to protect people from their cell phones and computers and Nixray was born, actually in the garage in Wellington Florida as I was there also aiding my sister in her Grand Prix pursuits.

There are always challenges along your road, the trick is listening to yourself. It is important to listen to both sides of the criticism There will be positive responses and always naysayers, both sides have insights. I try to remain neutral and open, but also know when to put my foot down and override a no-can-do attitude to create something no one perhaps has done before.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a single mother raising two sons, I often wondered about the world I had brought them into. Seeing them glued to their devices – for gaming as well as for school – I knew the paradigm had shifted and there was no going back.

I wondered, increasingly, about the potential danger of the proximity of high frequency microwave devices to the vulnerable bodies of sensitive people, infants and children, pregnant women, and fetuses.

I no longer felt comfortable putting my laptop on my lap. Yet it’s virtually impossible to imagine navigating through life – personal, professional, and educational – without Radio Frequency devices.

NixRay was born of my desire to create innovative and sustainable solutions to the negative impact of technology upon our planet and the life it supports. I believe that safety and technology can, and must, go hand in hand.

I developed NixRay Radio Frequency and RFID shielding antimicrobial phone and computer bags and cases to answer this need.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me the contact with my customer’s is the most rewarding. I recently had a 77 year old gentleman in a nursing home, who brought some of my products, then called me because he wanted a custom order. He wanted a bright orange cell case ( so he could find it easily) with Velcro on the top, so when he put the phone on his bedside (safely in a Nixray case) when he grabbed his phone, it wouldn’t fall out! So I made him one with two tabs at the top so it would be easy to open. He called me immediately upon arrival and we talked at some length. It’s so comforting to know that elderly folks are thinking about the safety of their phones.

When I first began making the cell phone sleeves I had a magnet top. I must of given out 25 to friends and family for the test drive. About 75% said to loose the magnet at the top. So hence I made the sleeve with an open top for easy removal. But making one for John in the Nursing home with Velcro has made me pause and perhaps think about creating one for those seeking phone safety from slipping out.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Nixray had a little hiccup during the pandemic. All the local sewing shops in New England were ordered to produce face masks and military products, including my sewing shop in Fall River Ma.

This caused quite a delay. But we persevered and it was 8 months later that we moved our whole production to New Jersey. This factory made bags only. It turned out to be a great creative move and a bonding relationship. They took care in making our bags and even had tips for improvement in production. So what I thought was going to be the death of Nixray turned out to be an even better experience, a step up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nixray.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nixrayshield?igsh=cjlzYzN4MDNtaDVm&utm_source=qr