ARTIST CREATIVELY WEAVES ALL HIS CRUISE SHIP ADVENTURES FOR OVER 10 YEARS

While many artists drew inspiration from their travels, Benjamin Sack discovered a special method to traverse the globe. Sack has been an artist-in-residence on a Holland American cruise ship for the last ten years. He takes advantage of this rare chance to absorb architectural details from cities all over the world, which he then combines into his intricate pen drawings. After graduating from college, Sack made his first approach to Holland America, a company well-known for its round-the-world cruises.

He presented a novel concept: an "artist residency" where he would instruct passengers in drawing and lecture them on works of art associated with the ports of call. In addition, he offered to draw a sizable map in the style of a cartographer to mark the journey. 

In the end, they said it would only take place this year, but they still thought it was a great idea and welcomed me on board. He quips to My Modern Met, "I'm now the court artist to King Neptune himself, ten years later."

Sack now works on his drawings in his studio on board the ship, where he draws inspiration from his travels through Antarctica, South America, Africa, and other places. He remarks, "I'm fortunate that the room has a view that changes all the time." "It might be the world's best art studio." He shows the passengers and crew the last drawing after every journey.

While on the ship, the artist makes friends with people from all walks of life and all over the world. He remarks, "I feel like a Court Artist of sorts because the ship is very much a city at sea." Because I sort of straddle the line between being a passenger and a crew member, my board position is special. Like art in the real world, where all social divisions and practices overlap, I have access to both worlds.

Sack can convey the amazing scope and intricacy of his travels, in addition to the minute details that characterise each monochromatic location. His drawings are intricately woven with his particular situation. His fine liners draw lines that are inexorably influenced by the ship's gentle swaying. His large-scale drawings are filled with mind-boggling details, like architectural renderings that capture a city's microcosm. Every piece is evocative of M. C. Escher's surreal lithographs and etchings.  

His designs are also replete with the intricate details of the cities he visits. Particularly Florence is a well-liked travel destination, and many drawings feature its famous Duomo. Sack says, poetically, "Architecture is merely music frozen in time." It can also symbolise the human form in a variety of ways, both literally (as the Roman architect Vitruvius put it) and figuratively (the body is a temple, for example). Thus, every building is essentially a character, a portrait, or even a note put together in a form and movement symphony.

Sack enjoys the adventure that awaits him while spending anywhere from a few months to half a year at sea. These excursions are interwoven with his enormous, intricate drawings. His designs are a fascinating window into the architectural styles of the world, ranging from the opulent Himeji Castle in Japan to the sleek modern structures on Singapore's Marina Bay.

The drawings are affixed to the studio on land. As he draws, a tiny bit of the ship's movement is captured; this tiny detail repeated a thousand times infuses a whole different spirit into the work. The studio travels on the ship, and the drawing records the movement of a journey around the planet," he explains. “Through my stateroom window, sunsets and sunrises depending on the ship's trajectory from every time zone break across the drawing. Each year, I find the drawings become richer and richer. It's magic!