Space Freak

In his youth, Bryan Collins valued drawing as a refuge. He regarded art as a way to unravel the mysteries floating around his mind. Upon observing the work of M.C. Escher, Bryan realized the immensely profound ability for art to communicate with parts of the mind, otherwise untouchable. He began to study artists such as Van Gogh, Dr. Suess, Norman Rockwell, and Dali. In his early teens he dove deeply into the world of comic books. In his late teens he was captivated by the imagination of Tim Burton. Art was everything to Bryan, because it gave him a voice. Then, in his early twenties, Bryan took on an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop and thought he had reached his dream. However, the tattoo field proved to be restrictive and itchy for him. There were so many rules that began to make Bryan's art stiff, rigid, and lifeless. Everything he drew had to be interpretable as a tattoo. It wasn't allowing him to experiment with the pushing out of boundaries, so he left the field. Afterwards, a detour was taken from art and he chased a career in music. Bryan joined a band called Jeremiah's Grotto and began touring from The Teddy Troops had been around in the streets for a while before they also turned into a 3D vinyl toy in 2004. First of all Flying Förtress started in 2002 to get up with his chrome Trooper icon. Trying to use an easier readable illustrative symbol instead of doing the classic coded graffiti letters and tags that he had been doing before since 1989. Together with the chrome pieces there have stickers also been seen around in the streets since 2002. Handpainted or silkscreend ones with a hand-drawn finish on "free" post stickers and series of offset printed stickers.