Martin Machado: Too Far Gone

The romanticism of a life at sea unveils the forgotten days of the great sailing ships that used to make up the Merchant Marine. But while the sailors desire for the unknown remains, the shipping industry has radically changed. Steel container ships, radar, and global positioning systems of present day have considerably tamed the voyage, but in its place solitude and disconnect have become the true dangers of life at sea. Martin spent six months at sea as a watch-standing deckhand on an international container ship. The ship travelled back and forth from New York to Singapore, stopping at many ports in between, and eventually crossed thePacific returning him to the San Francisco Bay. Spending eight of the twelve-hour workday on the bridge as a lookout, the artist’s mind had ample time to wander while staring at the horizon,far out to sea. These paintings are homage to the wanderers of the seas and the forefathers of the shipping industry.