LatinaLista — When most people see a kid with a can of spray paint, they automatically assume the worst — the kid is a troublemaker on his way to ‘tag’ some building. Yet, when Dallasite Martin Martinez sees someone with a can of spray paint, he sees things a little differently.
For Martinez, spray paint is how he expresses himself, makes his living, shares his talents and motivates children. Martinez is a spray paint artist who draws from a childhood watching the Super Heroes cartoons to create futuristic spray paint drawings.
Claiming to be a fan of performance art, Martinez mixes his loves of creating artwork and sharing it in sidewalk performances in downtown Dallas. It’s there where onlookers watch Martinez take a blank canvass, spray it with layers of different colored paint, light small fires (yes, fire) and ‘dig’ through the layers of crusted paint to reveal images conjured from deep within his imagination.
Martinez never uses brushes to create his masterpieces and his ‘canvass’ can be a number of different mediums from mirrors and ceramic tiles to steel plates and wood.
Yet, Martinez’s message to all who will hear him is more than just creating artwork — it’s about staying in school. Admitting to dropping out of school, Martinez says it wasn’t long before he realized just how much he needed an education. So, he got his GED and returned to school to get his degree. It’s a message that he willingly shares with students of all ages to get them to imagine a future for themselves.
Today, Martinez heads up Comso Universal Art where every work of art is a testament to turning his life around.
