Don Johnson - Total Art

 

This is a large triptych painting consisting of three panels which are all different shapes and sizes. They fit together with a centre configuration to complete the finished work. The first panel is seen on the left hand side and measures 125 x 180cm. The second panel which is on the right hand side measures 180 x 180cm. The final panel which can be seen at the top and to the right side of the finished work is the smallest panel. It measures 100 x 100cm. When these panels are all placed together in their correct positions they complete the Triptych with the overall dimensions of approx. 280 x 180cm.

 

The painting depicts a view looking into a telephone exchange workroom where the viewer is able to see the staff going about their work in a businesslike manner. The telephone exchange is a step back in time to the 1960's. It shows the staff using the equipment of the day. There are plug-in lines for incoming and outgoing calls. There is also a genuine headset from 1961 which can be seen hanging from the smallest and topmost painting. Other items from the 1960's can be seen throughout the work plus a few more from earlier times. There is even a redback spider. To add a little more action, the painting takes the viewer into more modern times showing the staff using computers.

 

In all, there are twelve staff members supposedly working throughout the painting. Eleven of them are women with just one male. HERBERT is his name and he is the Telephone Exchange Technician. The painting runs left to right as one looks at it. MAVIS can be seen at the top of this painting and is the workroom supervisor. She is pointing to the roster board where the day's work list is posted. She is grumbling as always about the day's events. Next to be seen is RONDA and she is hiding in the store room. There is no doubt she is hoping to meet Herbert rather sooner than later. She is whiling away her time while waiting, bouncing a telephone up and down.

 

To her it's a yo-yo and she's using the extension lead as the string. SHIRLEY is seated between the girls in front of her computer working hard. She can be seen taking a call with her left hand while also reaching out to answer another with her right. She is a very diligent worker, for her sandwich can be seen resting on the edge of her table. She has only managed to take a single bite before throwing herself back into her work. Across and to the left from her is her friend SANDY who is inclined to partake in a sly drink or two throughout her day. While guzzling down her drink she has inadvertently pushed her corkscrew bottle opener into the back of Shirley's computer. This has caused a few sparks to fly as the viewer can plainly see.

 

She is far more interested in drinking than attending to her work answering the phones. She lets her phone dangle down over her lap forgetting about it being off the hook. KYLIE is in the left hand bottom corner of this panel with her mind set only to applying her makeup. Her hand bag can be seen with lip sticks, jars full of cream and more. She holds a phone in her right hand, but her attention is plainly not on her job. She would seem to be more fascinated with her red lip stick, or perhaps she is considering a different colour? In the meantime her customer can wait. To the left of her is SHARON. She is in the bottom right hand corner of the painting playing with her knitting.

 

She has pushed the knitting needles back into the ball of wool and is answering a call in her left hand. She is suddenly abruptly interrupted and chooses to reach out in an effort to answer the ringing red phone in the next painting. She is seen reaching out with her right arm, out of the panel from where she is and into the second painting in order to answer it. As she does, she faces the viewer directly with a strange expression, her face expecting the worse! The Red Phone is for emergency calls only. Who is phoning and about what?

KELLIE is seen just below a note which has been clipped to the wall near to a "No smoking" sign. She is also just about to light up her cigarette.

 

Perhaps she has or does not want to see this "No smoking" sign? Or else thinks it does not apply to her. It looks like she has dismissed the rule of no-smoking in the workroom while attempting to do everything at once with a disapproving look on her face. MARY is seen filing her nails while attending to a caller on her headset. Her computer is on, but she chooses to ignore a connection from Canada plainly seen on the computer screen. Beneath her chair is a mouse and thrown away magazine cut outs which interested her days and weeks before. She is using the yellow pages to rest her foot on and also to ensure that she won't forget where they are, should she need them in a hurry.

 

Behind her is a caller she has forgotten about. Leaving them hanging from the mouthpiece and with her back to a very old and ancient telephone. Her mind is on other things! Perhaps even the note which is pinned together with a bud-rose to that ancient telephone. The note is signed with the letter 'H' and gives an exact time. Under the bookshelves containing the yellow pages we see AMBER. She is silently pigging out on lollies quite unaware that she is picking up the phone handset the wrong way up. Behind her the clock ticks on with just two minutes left to go before it strikes 1.30pm. The lovely MELANIE is seated in a green dress with a very revealing and uplifting bra. She is talking into her headset with starry eyes.

 

No doubt she is speaking to her boyfriend as she is seen holding a bunch of flowers which could only have been sent by him. She is dialling a customer at the same time on a very unusual thigh phone. Love is in the air for her as can be seen by the heart shaped ring on her finger and another heart around her neck. HERBERT is busy in the left hand corner of this second painting. He is holding up high his left hand in the hope that Mary will see him from across the workroom. He is inferring that there is only two minutes to go before they meet in his storeroom at 1.30pm. This is also told by the hands on the clock face. He is seen with many bits and pieces from phones to wires, springs together with his tools of trade and is always busy.

 

ROMA can be seen in the third smallest and highest painting. She is working there and having a very frustrating day. This is portrayed by the angry red background which can be seen behind her. Matching this is her own angry expression seen on her face as she struggles to answer all of the phones at the same time. She is seen reaching up into the top right hand corner of the painting to retrieve the spare headset which is hanging there. Herbert's note is very much in tune with her feelings at this moment in time. Her own headset can be seen in the foreground with damaged wires protruding from the cables. This third highest and smallest painting is joined to the second by way of the spare hanging headset phone lead. This hangs down to join the second painting.

 

On reaching the second painting the headset phone lead pushes into the exchange connecting panel board at the top of this second painting. The top and smallest painting is also joined to the first by the four coloured connecting switchboard wires and their connecting plates. The first painting is joined to the second by way of SHARON'S arm as she reaches out in an effort to grab the ringing red phone in the second painting. By connecting all three paintings together in this fashion creates the illusion of an unseen electrical phone circuit. Now the real hanging headset, together with the four switchboard wires become objects of art in a true sense by their association. All the paintings have a connection to each other just as people do when phoning.

 

There is a message in Morse code. A scene from the workroom window. A road going somewhere. A Redback Spider building himself a new home. An Aussie Flag and Koalas looking through a window. There is much more for the viewer to take in as seeing is believing. Everyone will make what they will of it, but no matter what. It's inevitable that most will agree and say.

IT'S JUST TELEPHONE CHAOS. It still takes the time and imagination for an artist to produce his work. In the end he is happy to generate some semblance of pleasure. Enjoy the paintings on my webpage for as different as they maybe, they present the changes and ideas that I have found and worked upon.

ART IS FOREVER A CHALLENGING
AND CHANGING FORCE.