Interview with Martin Machado on In The Make

Check out this beautiful interview with Martin Machado on In The Make where he discusses his new body of works Too Far Gone, opening this Saturday, May 5th, at Gallery Hijinks.

“Each piece goes off on its own little tangent, exploring the past and present of shipping and the romance/realities of a life at sea. In a few pieces I borrowed from the style of the Mexican artist Dr. Lakra, which he sort of borrowed from old film posters and his work as a tattooist. I thought the techniques of overlaying imagery worked perfectly for exploring some of the concepts I wanted to touch on; juxtaposing images of my crewmates with more romantic shipping imagery. I’m interested in people’s dreams and influences that shape their lives. I think it applies to us all, really, in any occupation or path, but I focused on why people begin working on ships, which was a question I asked most of my crewmates. All of the imagery has special significance; some are taken from my own photos and others were sourced later from old magazines, the Internet, books, or old Sailor Union of the Pacific newspapers. There are some historical images of key figures in shipping, such as Andrew Furuseth and Harry Lundenberg, both Norwegian sailors who came to America and fought for sailors rights here in San Francisco. There are also references to Sailor Jerry’s tattoo work, which has been so widely popularized, but was originally made for these sorts of characters to stumble into his shop in Honolulu, Hawaii and find a connection with the art.”- Read the entire interview here.