A certain raw surrealness clings to the shores of the Pacific Northwest. It is a place that has its feet both firmly rooted in the past and the future, in the sun and the rain, in the unruliness of nature and the sparkle of its cities. This dichotomy is most evident in the grizzled sense of humor of one of its residents, artist Kyler Martz.
For over the last fifteen years, his colorful, fantastical creations have turned heads and helped define the quirkiness of the region. Working in a wide variety of mediums-prints, sculptures, murals, tattoos, books, and others, his retro-style art immediately captures your attention.
“I often think I was born in the wrong time and place. This feeling of being in the wrong era often shows up in my art and the tongue and cheek sense of humor infused in it,” he says. “How a kid born in the Midwest, and growing up in Idaho, could feel so attached to the ocean ” often baffles me. So, I just smile and spend all my time creating things. Usually, there aren’t enough hours in the day to draw everything inside my head.”
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When he drove into Seattle in his battered 1993 Ford Ranger, with only $500 in his pocket, in 2009, he had no idea he would become an artist. Like many others who had arrived before, he knew he was home. The salty air and brilliant green hills seized his soul.
Not long after arriving and bouncing through a series of unfulfilling jobs, he started to feel the area’s pull. A lifetime of filling notebooks with pages of nautically themed images came bubbling back to the surface. His home in the middle of a working-class waterfront neighborhood provided nothing but inspiration.
Not long after diving into his art, he landed his first large mural job, and things took off from there.Soon he was balancing corporate clients with jobs for local bands. Each piece he made had a uniqueness to it. Hints of old rock posters, guerilla underground comics, and street art flow with bright colors paired with whimsical scenes. He still rides his bike everywhere, often stopping when he sees something that inspires him. Being in the community is what fuels him.
It only was natural that he would soon be drawing his art on people’s skin; it’s the ultimate canvass. He apprenticed for almost a year in the trenches learning the trade and polishing his skills.
“I always wanted to work in tattoos, my older brother was in the Navy, and I fell in love with the old-school tattoos so prevalent there,” he says. “I started to see my art showing up on people’s bodies, and I knew that I wanted to be the one to help them make their statements. I love the fact that each tattoo is one of a kind and belongs to the person I ink. You can’t sell them.”
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The heartbeat of any tattoo shop are the rows of brilliant flash art lining the walls and proudly displayed in oversized binders. Each image offers a glimpse into the mind of the artists who work in the shop. Martz’s flash art leans heavily on his passion for the nearby seas while displaying his signature offbeat humor. Burly octopuses, bold fish, and other benthic denizens strike poses befitting their status as rulers of their realms. As a highly sought-after tattooist his flash art and off-beat designs are highly prized possessions.
Martz relocated to Portland after the pandemic when he felt it was time for a change. These days he works out of a studio filled with the things he loves. Old rock posters sit above a battered leather couch. Antique file cabinets filled with well-used old children’s books and pictures sit off to one side. Martz thumbs through them for inspiration. The walls are covered in aging signs and brilliant pieces of his artwork.
The latest project he has been working on is a series of pictures featuring different dogs, all covered in tattoos. They are inspired by his ever-present partner in crime, his dog Penny, whom he calls his muse. Each one exudes its own off-centered vibe of a pet that could only fit into the Pacific Northwest.
His art has spread and acted as their own ambassador for the magnificently weird beauty of his homeland. Travelers sporting his tattoos roam cities worldwide, corporate clients like Amazon and Starbucks have collaborated with him, and his murals are spreading. Sure, there are other ways to exhibit the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Still, few can match a Kyler Martz original.
