Mars' Name For Itself by Monte Thrasher‎

This 'alphabet' was selected from the previous image, of a Martian dune field dusted with dry ice. "What is Mars' name for itself?"

I like sifting through Martian imagery looking for distinct and alien patterns and trying to tinker artwork out of them, for surely any native Martian art must start with the landscape.

I'm a proud proto-Martian, you see.

We'll have a developed Martian culture some day --well, actually the Martian colonists will-- but now it's at such an embryonic stage you can make a contribution without getting swamped, and it can stand out as first things do.

My favorite 'genre' is first attempts: the first animated cartoon, the first electronic music, or first musique concrète, the first animated abstract art, and so on.

In the earliest stages, before there are conventions or cliches to lean on, all the artist has for guidance is his or her own sense of what is beautiful and true.