ARTISTS TALKING

# 6 [7 October 2009]

The officially renamed All That Mighty Heart was launched on the general public at the Phoenix Brighton Open last weekend. Framed collages and a ‘research wall’ showed found material, images, drawings and extracts from the blog illustrating how the work is developing. After a week of illness at the printers the card stand, by the work, didn’t provide the contact details and email address to take away. Best laid plans. But they are done now and ready to start spreading the word!

It has been so long since I’ve let ideas freefall and hope they land in an innovative and reasoned manner. I’ve now made enough mind maps to cover a steam engine, but ideas do come together when you have time to let them. And contrary to belief...the lengthy bus rides to school are not bereft of suitable stimulus for drawing those map strands together. I walked the quiet lane to the Waterworks Cottages (early for the bus one day!) The silence allowed me to picture the workers in their caps and boots crunching along the flinty path. Back at the Engineerium the diggers have moved in to start the new work. The silence is coming to an end. I am glad of the last few months of visualising in the stillness.

Back in the studio, between school runs and hefty preparing for Phoenix Open, I have been experimenting with ageing paper, making it, with candles, tea and lemon juice and adding decades to my images. I’m still enjoying my Rotring (even more so since Peter informed me he uses his to outline the lettering on the side of his engines.) Acting instantly on ideas without worrying about the outcome is becoming a bit easier, again with the luxury of time after last week’s frantic timetable.  

# 5 [11 September 2009]

Engineers Report Book January 19^th 1875

I beg to report the current wages at the Goldstone works;

J Baker 2/10/- a week  Engineer

T Waite 24/- day   Stoker

G Cosham 20/- day   Stoker

King 22/- day   Stoker

Adams 22/-   Labourer

R Alderton 1/- a week  Office boy

A Colessida 26/-  Is a fitter and repairs meters and fixes the same, and sluice and sometimes assists the turncock

My Notebook September 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to report that the mountain of material in the store changes the shape of the undertaking. Plans and documents have been clarified free from copyright and reproduction issues, -and importantly costs, thus the publication has taken on a new life. The Jackdaw and the Engineers Notebook Series inspire and Waterworks memo's, notes and plans have been scanned and reviewed over this recent school holiday.

On a recent visit to the workshop  ideas were discussed. Whilst partaking of a beverage with the Goldstone workers 'Brass' as a title is now discarded on  discovering it is an alloy and not present in the machinery (only on plaques around the building.) After talk of the true description of a cog I returned to notice the silence of the building and the sound of the Edward Funnell clock. I proceeded to film the situation. Adding this feeling of standstill to my mind map a clear theme and final title  emerge – in the words of Wordsworth ‘All that Mighty Heart Stands Still’ 

My thoughts no longer feel compromised, but fed, by all the findings which now, through their own quality and quantity, find their own life in a unique pubication. 

# 4 [10 September 2009]

Here I am thinking I’m following a new direction when it appears that my past is just re- emerging!  ‘Art and the Industrial Revolution’ (Klingender), which kick started my reading, is the book I discovered during A level Art.

Recent attempts at more technically accurate drawings reminded me of my Rotring pens and my nostalgia for once tracing out Future Bold on a light box, before the days of computer typography.  I’ve dug out my much cherished pens (some were my Father’s from his mine surveying day) and abandoned any thoughts of charcoal (a fleeting ‘coal like’ consideration) Revisiting old sketchbooks (hunting down a drawing I once did of a Lego man- for my little boy!) I found the Sheeler like drawings I made of the steelworks in my native Yorkshire.

It all stacks up! A deep affection for the industrial landscape and people combined with the satisfaction I get from a graphic meticulousness. I am about to do a timeline of my life and list all my past creative obsessions and see if there is anything else that sits comfortably amid all this research.

# 3 [10 August 2009]

Engineers Report Book October 12^th 1875

I beg to submit to your notice a sample of the present quantity of coal now being delivered, which appears inferior to the last.

Your Obedient Servant, J Johnston

My Notebook June 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to report that I was at the Goldstone works last week and can inform you that I have spent some time at the works rediscovering my skills, long since used, of penmanship and have embarked on drawings of draftsman like intent and collages with a feel of exactitude. I can report that the meeting has been arranged for 9.30am on the morning of the 11th to commence the hunt through the pumping station’s own aged documents in storage. It is anticipated to reveal the daily routine of the blacksmith and workers of such like. I can also report that a clear summary of intent for this exhibition has now been composed and is ready to mail to the building’s former industrial archaeologist and a steam enthusiast of high regard.

# 2 [20 July 2009]

Random Inspirations

Peter and his knowledge of machines

Old photos (he has worked at The Engineerium for 30 years)

Archives East Sussex Archives' Ledgers, diaries 1876-1900’s for their imagery and Victorian turn of phrase.

Ham Baker and Co catalogue, makers of waterworks machinery.

Russian Theatre especially Shepyanov's 'My Friend' 1932

The Art of the Engineer beautifully exact

Paolozzi , early collages

Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times)

Union Carbide Silicones, adverts drawing on photos (Fortune Magazine, 1950)

‘Promptitude’ a pub sign I saw walking home. I’ve never noticed it before.

I’m reflecting on all my interests that, through working habits and getting trapped in a certain process, have stopped finding their way into the final work- writing, forging links and threads, photography,design.

A need to create last week, after being encircled by ever changing mind maps, saw me drawing machines on sheet metal. It provided a lesson in exactitude! and a reminder of Victorian precision! Not to mention how long it is since I've worked on a finely detailed still life. Now I'm trying to draw like a machine. At the same time I’m mechanically moving round and reordering the images and material I've collected to find that heart.

# 1 [29 June 2009]

Engineers Report Book 11^th April 1874

Gentlemen, I beg to report that I was at the Goldstone works yesterday and the Number 1 Engine was working well.

Your Obedient Servant, M Johnston

My Notebook June 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to report that I was at the Goldstone works yesterday and can inform you that, following the tiptoeing through archives of crumbling Victorian cuttings in the County Archives, I revisited the works with a new found vision of the museum in its previous incarnation. I t has been a few weeks since the news that funding has been allocated and explorations have been initiated. Proliferations of mind maps encircle me in themes from inspirations, to locations to lifestories. I now have the task of drawing out one thread.