This giving season, we partnered with local Salida artist Andrew Dengate to design new merch for Allover Apparel that not only encompasses our mission, but gives back to it too. The hoodies will be available on our website soon, and 10% of all proceeds will go to the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative, supporting watershed health and community resilience.
Want to be the first to get your hands on it? Sign-up for the Allover Adventure Club for first dibs on gear and updates you’ll want to know about.
In the meantime, we connected with the artist himself so you can learn a little bit more about him and how he created the design that we can’t wait to share with you all.
Tell us a little about why you are who you are today.
I’m just a boy trying to buy a house and navigate our changing political and economic world and try to be a really good athlete and still find love at the same time.
I tend to look at the world a little differently, which is what helps me navigate being an artist. I think it’s maybe more off-kiltered than how other people see things. I do think that’s important because I am constantly looking at our natural world and trying to figure out how to recreate it in different mediums. I’m constantly engaging in nature and these outdoor experiences and analyzing them from a design perspective.
I started making art at a really young age. I was actually homeschooled and my dad was an artist by profession. A portion of our education was centered around creating. We would do workshops where he would instruct us to paint like Van Gogh or Monet, and we would try to replicate their style. There’s a piece of art hanging in my parents house that I made when I was five years old—it’s a woodcut carving. It’s simple but it has a poetic quality to it. Knowing I created something like that at such a young age is inspiring to this day.
There was a period of time though when I set art to the side while I was studying biology in college. But in 2017 the town of Breckenridge created a contest to design a reusable bag, and I remembered thinking as soon as I read the description: I have a pretty good shot at winning this. So I threw my hat in the ring and won.
I sort of joked that if I won it was the first step in a ten step process to become a Mountain Millionaire, which I’m not still, of course. Maybe I’m at step three at this point. But it’s a slow process.
There was another turning point, when we all had an opportunity in 2020 to evaluate our lives and what we’re looking toward. I realized then that my career as a ski patroller was not going to be what got me to where I wanted to be, and that’s when I really engaged in becoming a full-time artist. I moved to Salida and launched that career, which has had its ups and downs, but overall has been incredibly successful.
How did you approach the design for the art for Allover’s autumn drop?
It was a very collaborative process. The concept is to envision a whole planet where you can take your Allovers, and naturally a massive focus on that is the outdoors. You can really see the inspiration pulled from the butte landscape as people experience as they continue west. The design nods to mountains, rivers, and wildlife—a lot of imagery to where Emma and I live in Salida—all within encapsulated space was a fun project to work on.
What advice would you give someone hesitant to pursue a creative career or endeavor?
Let go of all expectations. If you want to create, just start creating. Don’t worry about the product as much as you might later on in your career as a creator. You’re honing your craft, and I honestly forget that fairly often. Lately I’ve been using the rhetoric: Everything I make is good, but it might not be to everyone’s liking.
I was just at the Grand Canyon and I took ten panels and decided that I would just paint what was in front of me without caring what the product looks like. I’m just going to paint until it’s done and capture these moments. Some of them I really like, and some of them I don’t, but every single one was totally worth the effort.
What’s your absolute perfect day, from start to finish?
I used to think about this a lot in high school, where I would wake up and go mountain biking and then skiing. I always envisioned it happening in Hawaii for some reason.
But nowadays, I think if I can fit into three activities, that’s perfect. A lot of times it’s hard for me to pick up a paint brush, but as soon as I start painting something and I get in that flow, it transcends to the same state as when you get into the flow of skiing or mountain biking where the beautiful thing is you’re not really thinking about anything else.
So basically the equation for a perfect day is how many times can I get into the flow state.
Who influences and inspires you most to continue to pursue your passions?
There are a lot of artists I look up to, like John Fellows or Jeremy Collins. They both have this iconic style with great focus on outdoor recreation. Another artist whose work I really appreciate is Shepherd Fairey, the guy who created the OBEY campaign, which generated so much excitement. All of a sudden these OBEY stickers were popping up all over the place and people wanted to know what it meant. Even if it doesn't mean that much, it gets us to think about our surroundings and ask questions. I think that’s one of the greatest things art can do.
Let's talk about Allovers. What drew you to them?
The first time I put Allovers, it was a vibe. It was casual and cool. What really motivates me to wear them is that it’s a single piece of apparel that really covers all of your bases. You really don’t have to wear anything else—you just put your Allovers on and you’re good to go from the mountain to the grocery store.
I actually wear them without a shirt a lot, especially in the Grand Canyon when I would change from these wet clothes from the river into loose, comfortable overalls. From there, I can just kind of cruise.
I also like that I can store so many tools in the pockets, like a pencil or a paintbrush.
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