Power Your Vision

Mario Garcia has never done just one thing. He's a muralist, a composer, a multi-instrumentalist, a curator, and a community builder, all at once, all the time. Born and raised in Phoenix, he is the kind of person who sees the city not just as a place to live but as a canvas to contribute to, and he's been doing exactly that since 2018, when he walked away from a corporate job and decided to bet everything on his art.

"I didn't know I could turn a passion into a career," he says. "But once I saw how much the city opened itself up to me, I knew I could do this."

He works in calligraphy script with portraits, desert landscapes, and abstract compositions built entirely from hand-lettered forms, assembled in layers with acrylic paint, exterior house paint, and aerosol spray for shadow and dimension. His murals have become part of Phoenix's public landscape during what he describes as a mini Renaissance in the city's art scene, fueled by municipal investment in public art and a generation of artists willing to take the leap together.

"Creativity is the root of everything in my life," he says. "It's the foundation of how I get through my jobs, my challenges, everything."

The Art of Showing Up

For years, Mario's creative life existed mostly indoors, involving studio work, commissioned murals, collaborations with vocalists and other musicians, and general gigging in spaces chosen for him. Then, in January 2026, something happened. 

Mario reached out to a few musician friends, asked if they wanted to meet at a park, and play. It did not have any agenda, tip jar, or performance pressure. It only involved instruments in the open air, sitting in the grass, creating together.

"It just felt too good not to keep doing it," he says.

Before the Jackery

Running outdoor music sessions at a serious level is a logistics problem before it's anything else. Mario knew this was going in. Two QSC 1000-watt portable PA speakers, a full-size 88-key workstation piano, a mixer, lights, and devices to keep charged. 

Before he had a power solution that worked, the options were limited and often discouraging. You hoped the venue had accessible outlets. You hoped your extension cord was long enough. Or you sourced a gas generator, which meant emissions, noise, fuel, oil, tipping hazards, and a whole additional layer of logistics on top of an already complex setup.

"Before the Jackery, I was just hoping," he says. "And a lot of times, not doing anything because I didn't have the generator that would support what I needed."

The Jackery Explorer 500: A Borrowed Beginning

Mario was introduced to Jackery through his brother-in-law, a van lifer from Chicago who had been using the Jackery Explorer 500 for outdoor living. About a year ago, Mario asked to borrow it for a park rehearsal with just him and a guitarist, running through material for an upcoming show. It handled the piano and the guitar amp without complaint.

He started borrowing the Jackery Explorer 500 regularly. The sessions grew with more musicians, more instruments, more volume. And then came the bass guitar.

"At a certain point, certain lower frequencies were causing the 500 to cut out," he says. "We were pushing it right at its threshold."

It wasn't a failure exactly. The Jackery product would turn right back on, and the sessions continued. But Mario could see exactly where the ceiling was, and he could see that the sessions were too good to be constrained by it. The second day he ran the program, he made the purchase.

The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2: Built for the Vision

The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 changed what was possible both technically and creatively. Mario did the research before buying, considering wattage draws, peak loads, and how the math actually worked for his specific setup. What he found surprised him.

"Those 1000-watt portable PA speakers only draw about 30 watts on average ," he says. "Two of them drawing 60 watts steady, doing that research blew my mind, because these Jackery products are really incredible for what they're able to do."

There's another dimension to this that Mario wants musicians to understand. The common workaround for outdoor power problems is to switch to portable Bluetooth speakers that are compact, battery-powered, and do not require a generator. But that trade-off costs something. For Mario, whose sessions run on QSC speakers, the industry standard for live PA sound, that's not an acceptable compromise.

"I don't have to compromise the quality of my speakers with these generators," he says. "I get to use my speakers and everything to their fullest ability."

The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 handles his full setup with room to spare. Two PA speakers, the piano, the mixer, lights, and all the devices that need charging throughout a session. Running everything at full performance volume, he's gotten up to seven hours before the Jackery Portable Power Station needs a recharge. Two weeks before this interview with the Jackery team, he tested three PA speakers alongside his full setup for the first time. Three hours in, the power station was down about 40%.

"It didn't even phase it," he says.

For longer sessions, he runs both Jackery products together: the Jackery Explorer 500 on one speaker and the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 handling everything else, which extends the total playtime to around 10 hours.

What It Actually Changed

Mario is careful to explain that the impact of having reliable portable power is cognitive. It changes how he thinks.

"Everything boils down to how am I going to power things," he says. "Having the Jackery allows me to have more ideas and actually build on those ideas."

Before, the power question was a filter that quietly eliminated possibilities before they got far enough to be considered. Now it's a solved problem. He can think about what he wants to create and work forward from there, rather than working backward from what the infrastructure allows.

He keeps the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 in his van most of the time, using it as an on-the-go power bank for devices and a fast charger for his iPad on the road. He's powered lights for mural work in the garage and outdoors. The Jackery product has become a constant presence across both sides of his creative life.

"I've never owned a device that keeps impressing me," he says. "What impresses me most is that it charges so quickly and holds such a strong charge at the same time. It stays put. It's incredible."

Power Your Vision

Mario has turned his outdoor sessions into a public program called Live From Third. He sees the program as something that will keep growing with more locations around Phoenix, school programs, music education, and sound production workshops for young people who want to learn how the whole thing works. 

He tags Jackery in his posts. He tells other musicians. He volunteers the information unprompted because he genuinely believes there's an entire market of performers who could be playing outside right now if they knew what was available to them.

"It's not just helping me," he says. "It can power your sessions, but more than that, it can power your visions."

The Jackery Explorer 500 is already sold out. We recommend customers consider our newer models, such as the Jackery Explorer 600 v2 and Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus, which offer improved performance and enhanced features.