Mars-1 Observer - Delta Inc

Based in San Francisco, CA but catering to the world at large, STRANGEco creates and distributes unique, high-quality design-oriented consumer products. Working closely with contemporary artists from a variety of subculture art genres – pop surrealism, graffiti & street art, independent comics, illustration, graphic design and others – STRANGEco takes original character design and transforms it into beautiful three dimensional art objects. Founded in 2002 by Gregory Blum and Jim Crawford, STRANGEco has become a dynamic force in the worldwide “Art Toy” movement with a reputation for the highest quality, best produced and intricately realized items. STRANGEco has produced hundreds original products from designs by a literal “who’s who” of contemporary art: Gary Baseman, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Jeremy Fish, FriendsWithYou, James Jarvis, Mars-1, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Todd Schorr, Tokidoki, Jim Woodring and others. STRANGEco goods can be found in fine retailers worldwide, including art, design and gift stores, boutique toy stores, lifestyle and apparel shops, museum stores, comic, record and bookshops, and a select number of lifestyle-oriented national retailers.Mario Martinez (aka MARS-1) paints from a penetrating perspective of great depth. Viewers are drawn into his imaginative compositions, overflowing with colorful geometric and organic shapes, layered to form unique patterns and textures. The artist signature style of vast, abstracted, quasi-extraterrestrial looking landscapes feature imagery of surreal distortions, contained within spherically convex transparent bubbles. Skillfully combining optical color blending with perspective line work, his painting techniques result in very three-dimensional forms, which echo the anatomy of architecture, and microcosmic structures of biology. These 3-D qualities transcend into his sculptural work, as well. Mars-1’s distinctly individual aesthetic is not easily compared to the vision of his contemporaries or artists from past movements. His constantly evolving process continues to expand with each new series of work, seemingly beyond the reaches of even his own awareness. Themes explored range from very scientific to more esoteric phenomena. From theoretical physics, metamorphosis and collective consciousness, to ufology and examining possibilities of otherworldly principles, the relative link between physical and life sciences are applied throughout. Transitional energies, natural multiplicity, helixes and spontaneous biological occurrences all come together, forming imagery with hypotheses beyond the scope of modern technology.