Robert Mars | Visual Storyteller | Chronicles of Americana

I would be surprised if Robert Mars sleeps more than an hour a night. As both the full time design director of Zoo York and full time fine artist, he has managed to squeeze two full lives into one. With all that going on in his day-to-day though, he manages to remain friendly, positive, and forever-inspired. That is an achievement all in itself.

To keep the creative balance between Zoo York and his personal work, Mr. Mars draws upon two different aesthetics.  Zoo York’s urban gritty skateboarding culture is a natural expression of his life as an actual skaterboarder. He and his design team live and breathe skating- Mars, himself an avid skater since 1985.
On the flip side, the fine artist in Mars is a student of American culture and a social archaeologist. He describes his current work as “a chronicle of Americana”. Deeply inspired by the 1950′s and 60′s collective character, Mars’ paintings serve as highly textured snap shots (both literally and figuratively) of a time when Americans shared a powerful optimism. Muscle cars and pinup girls, fast-food joints and bowling lanes, classic superheroes and branded corporations all collaged beautifully in a patchwork of lost America. As he notes- a lost America that has been replaced by a homogenized corporate culture.  His use of multimedia and symbolic slight-of-hand has drawn comparisons of his work to both Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.

Introduced to Mr. Mars’ work only in the last couple months, I was lucky enough to steal some of his precious time for a few questions about his work and methods:

The First Few: Please describe the medium in which you are currently working.

Robert Mars: My work usually begins on MDF panel, which I layer with a cutwork of brown paper bags until the surface is completely covered. This is the beginning of the grid patterns that serve as the background of my work. Once the paper has cured,  I start the layering process by mixing areas of paint with vintage ephemera from old newspapers, travel maps, and magazine clippings from LIFE, LOOK, Playboy, and other period magazines. I continue to build overlay until I feel the piece is what I had envisioned.

Aside from illustrations from comic books, all of the location and automobile imagery is from my personal collection of travel photos. I spend time organizing research trips to document small towns, unique locations, and pockets of history that have maintained what I imagine as classic Americana. Some of my favorite finds are in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Oregon. I frequently drive hours in hopes that a sign will still be standing, or a building will not have been razed to make way for more “progress.”  I like to back-paint into these photos for additional interest and emphasis. Once I apply them to the surface of the work I add more bits of collage until I am satisfied with the composition.  I then cover the entire image in resin. The edges of the panels are the final step, which I cover with selected strips of vintage newspaper.

The First Few: Are there things in your personal downtime from which you draw inspiration?

Robert Mars: In my downtime I do spend time searching for vintage ephemera. I find that the ease of access to auctions and sales on the internet can be a blessing and a curse for someone who is interested in the paper goods that I use in my work. I usually prefer to travel with my wife and friends and experience the moment of discovery and luck of the hunt in the back of some barn or flea market.  Everywhere I travel I try to hit garage sales, antique stores, and roadside stands in search of a stack of the magazines, postcards, and tin signs that inspire my work.  My studio (and home) is hung with art from my contemporaries, and rusty advertisements from the 1950′s and 60′s.  I try to truly live surrounded by inspiration.

The First Few: Any particular music that gets things flowing?

Robert Mars: As far as music goes I have a love for everything from folk and country to black metal and Punk. When I am painting, I tend to play folk and singer/songwriters in the background. Damien Jurado, Bonnie Prince Billy, Richard Buckner, Bruce Springsteen, Magnolia Electric Co, Horse Feathers, and Jim Bryson are on heavy rotation these days.

The First Few: Do you use a trial-and-error method to reach the desired balance within each piece?

Robert Mars: I find that some days are good for painting, and some days I spend paging through papers and tearing out images that strike me.  I tend to keep these on a wall in my studio and mull them over until I mentally compose a piece that has a home for those images.  Some of those tear sheets can live on the wall for years until I find the perfect home for them.  I want to balance the intention of the printed matter with my concepts as an artist.  Part of my responsibility as a visual storyteller is to edit, so that even if an image might look good compositionally, but be out of place within the story, I have to let it go. It is a system of trial and error which keeps the process fresh to me. I am always striving to make that epic, and in my mind perfect, piece of art.

Robert’s current show at the DTR Modern Galleries in Boston, Mass has his works sitting alongside other art world luminaries as, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Damien Hurst, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Indiana.

Robert Mars

Please check into Mr. Mars’ personal blog and enjoy his extensive portfolio at  http://robertmars.blogspot.com