Where are you from?
I was born and raised in San Jose, CA.
Tell us about your first experience with the sea.
I spent a lot of time over the hill in Santa Cruz as a kid. We had a good amount of family over there so I was constantly at the beach with my brothers and cousins.
When/how did you get into sailing?
I got a little bit of sailing in as a kid, but it really didn't solidify until I got my first job on a tall ship at 19 in the San Francisco Bay.
While living in Santa Barbara, did you build anything awesome like a boat?
I think you're leading the interview here! Ha. NO I actually didn't build a boat, but I was working for a sailboat day charter deal, and my boss basically gave me an old 25 ft sail boat so that he could put someone in that slip. So I spent about a year sprucing it up and sailing out to the Channel Islands, before the anchor snagged when I was on shore and it went up on East Beach. So I spent about another year getting it in shape again then sold it up in the SF bay. I miss that cursed little boat...
Tell us about your job/work on container ships. How did you get into this line of work?
The captain and young crew of that tall ship (the Hawaiian Chieftain, now based out of Seattle) made a huge impression on me and I was encouraged to save sea letters from other boats I worked on in order to accrue credentials that could get me out on any ship. So about 8 years later after working on everything from modern sailboats and commercial fishing boats, to oil spill clean up ships, I finally had what I needed to ship out through a union as part of the deck crew on a containership. That was 2009 and I was on that ship for over 6 months straight going from New York to Singapore and back every 2 months. I've pretty much been shipping out for 3-5 months out of each year since and its gotten me all over the world.
You were just in LA for an art show, Tell us about your newest collection, An Ocean Between Us!
Yeah, I just had a show downtown LA at a gallery called Cordesa Fine Art. The show was called Bodies Politic and I have some big ink on paper drawings as well as a lot of photography from my travels. I also made some sculpture out of a much traveled used shipping container, which I cut, sandblasted, and put a patina on to make the raw steel look like bronze.
Any more shows coming up?
Lots coming up in the fall and winter, to early for details, but I'm very excited for some upcoming projects with an artist I've long admired. Plus a good amount of art fairs through my galleries K. Imperial in San Francisco and Cordesa in Los Angeles.
Moving away from the sea for a moment. I hear the Machados have a pretty rad round up every year. Is that something you look forward to every year? Why ?
Ha yes. My grandfather on my dad's side of the family is Portuguese from the Azores, and his family had kept the cattle ranching traditions going. Now generations later, most (but not all) of his grandchildren are pretty much city-slickers but we get together at least once a year to help out on the ranch near San Luis Obispo. I handle most of the branding which is sort of a lazy old man's job. I do look forward to it every year though, and every time I'm down there I wonder why I don't live in that area.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Man I was on a container-ship over the holidays going to Asia and back. I got off mid Jan and then was basically in a cave working non stop for this LA show. So I am most looking forward to right now, finally relaxing a bit, surfing again, and spending lots of time with my wife and toddler son.
What is the best way for us to follow your work?
Probably instagram is the most up to date, or www.martinmachado.com for shows and stuff.
