“Greater Vehicle”- Original painting by MJ Seal. Acrylic on canvas, 52″ x 72″. C. 2026
Layer upon layer of dazzling, brightly colored artifice spill out of this cutaway view of a big, white, fanciful cruise ship- like innards pouring out from a gutted fish. Memento mori look on as it’s drunken passengers fumble about in their debauched revelries. At her bow a crying princess serves as a figurehead above which a detail of the deserted bridge shows a wheel helmed by a broom capped with an officer’s hat. She, the “Majesty Of The Seas”, has no anchors- the only thing that could slow her momentum is the supply ship tied up to the leg of a chair in the dining room. She has a lot of baggage and a series of cascading problems in the engine room.
In the central party zone- an upper deck pool- lies a ship of fools within a ship of fools. A speed boat- permanently moored to an artificial island in the middle of the pool- is filled with the upper crust of this hedonistic bunch. A banana hangs down from a pole held by gloved hands emerging from the vegetation sprouting exuberantly from this strange, artificial island. A busty party girl and the shirtless, white-haired captain appear to be battling for a bite of it. Between them an ice luge launches pink champagne from the “Castaway” island bar into the roiling pool water. Drunken revelers splash, pose, strip, and strut filling every inch with movement and color.
This was inspired by Heironymus Bosch’s “Ship Of Fools” which I had the pleasure of seeing in person. The term “Greater Vehicle” itself is derived from Buddhism. In the Buddhist sense it was meant as a path to enlightenment for all beings. This vehicle can’t stop moving but doesn’t really seem to have a destination for it’s distracted passengers. I had originally envisioned some sort of strange yacht with the crying princess figurehead. Over the course of a year (!) it gradually evolved into- well- this.
“Greater Vehicle” is one of the longest running projects I’ve ever embarked on and I wanted to quit several times. But moments of serendipity- like stumbling across “Trainwreck: Poop Cruise” kept me going. After seeing that I knew I was on the right path!
In the central atrium a giant aquarium towers up deck by deck. At it’s base a boy looks on intently at a fake pirate skeleton whose arms are outstretched over a fake treasure chest- seemingly beckoning passengers to join him in his watery grave. A large, menacing shark circles behind. Leaks spill out onto the floor from a crack in the aquarium glass and a water fountain at the bottom of the stairs- creating a slip and fall hazard for the distracted passengers absorbed in their smartphones. In the foreground a parrot, a scarlet macaw, sits upon the gnarled branch of a dying plant in a golden planter. Three young women sit at the planter’s base, gaze listlessly-like bored muses- at the heaps of baggage below them in the holds.The figurehead of this vessel, the “Majesty Of The Seas”, is a crying princess that looks like some 70’s homecoming queen complete with a diamond tiara crowning her feathered, blond hair. A seagull, surrounded by layers of guano, stands on top. She towers above the drunken passengers milling about on the deck. One group seems to be playing spin the bottle- but instead of a kiss the group of young males pose for the camera of a young female’s smartphone- but only the guy mooning her catches her attention. Hanging from the railing of the deck is a maintenance man futilely painting over the rust stains that seem to reappear almost as soon as they are covered.In a cut-away view of the interior of the deserted bridge a mixture of modern computers and ancient horns and dials make up the control panels. A broom with a cartoon of a face taped to it and topped with a captain’s hat has been propped up against the old-fashioned ship’s wheel. The only officer seemingly on duty is off having a smoke break.The title of this piece, ensconced in an elaborate rococo frame, is crowned by the figure of Neptune in a golden chariot driven by two lurid, blue green water horses as a pair of mermaids look on. An inflatable boat crowded with refugees in fluorescent lifesaver vests sits to the lower left. A broom held by hands emerging from a hatch in the hull of the ship is trying to push it off and away. Around the precarious raft sharks circle menacingly as medieval sea monsters emerge from the waves.An emergency situation is developing in the engine room. A busted boiler is spewing steam and flames shoot out from the furnace below it. In the lower right a fountain of seawater shoots up from the floor and threatens to flood the daisy chained extension cords powering the Rube Goldberg-like conveyor belt feeding the furnace with coal. A white-haired engineer calmly takes notes, seemingly detached and unconcerned at what’s transpiring around him. Above the engine room a young boy in a tub seems distracted from the toy ship he is playing with by the loud, drunken bachelorette partygoers stumbling about in the hallway.A birthday party is taking place in a lower deck pool. The birthday boy- a big man with a big fake crown seems frozen as he catches a glimpse of the grim reaper emerging from a cloud of steam pouring up from the broken boiler below. The much younger partygoers surrounding- but not interacting with him- don’t seem to notice and carry on in their conversations, drinking merrily. The wall behind them shows a mosaic of a volcano erupting on some tropical island. A white ship sails by on a sea of cobalt blue tesserae.In the dining room corpulent patrons in Hawaiian shirts and Tommy Bahama ensembles gorge themselves on a buffet overflowing with decadent offerings. Propped behind the spread is a giant mirror carved with the figure of Venus lounging in a half shell with an attendant cherub. A giant spray of flowers, foliage and sticks with fruit tied to them sprouts up from behind the mirror. At the back of the space is another aquarium with another menacing shark circling inside. In a stygian darkness of boiling cauldrons and searing ovens a crew of servants and cooks toil. They almost resemble ghosts dressed in outfits pulled from different centuries. An entourage of laborers drag sacks of flour and other sundries up a ladder from the supply ship.At the stern of the ship the waterfall pouring down from the upper deck pool crashes down on a rock garden. On the mossy rocks a bathing beauty poses for a friend’s camera, lurking amongst nearby reeds a voyeur appears to be masturbating. The stream from the waterfall feeds a large swamp within which a bar sits- it’s drunken patrons seemingly unaware of the circumstances they are in as the slimy water rises up around them.In the upper left corner an unlucky partygoer is about to go over the side of a waterfall draining an infinity pool. Other revelers look on with only slight concern. Behind them flames, black smoke and cinders shoot out of the funnel. Save for one passenger -about to catch a bit of soot raining down in his outstretched hand- no one seems to notice the danger emerging right over their heads.
MJ Seal .Art 