Highlighted work
Daddy-o
Fiona Martin, 2017
Facebook reminded me on 13th August 2018, that I took this picture of dad exactly a year ago that day. It was such a great day, we ended up on an unplanned family pub crawl around the usual places in Luton. It was such a laugh. I took this in the Painters, I had just sat down and had my phone in my hand when I glanced over at dad. I called him and in a split second he we caught each other's eye, and I snapped it. Like every great moment between me and dad, everyone else just melted away and it was just us, saying everything in just a look. I knew straight away it would be my favourite image of dad but never imagined it would become arguably an iconic image. There has been great debate over which is the better image, the black & white or the colour. I was honoured that my family chose the black & white to symbolise him at his funeral, and it was just meant to be that we used the colour for his exhibition. He would have loved all of this.
Francis Martin Fabrications
Fiona Martin, August 13, 2018
Dad was renowned for his steel fabrication work, for the engineering, inventiveness and craftsmanship. But it was the work ethic he taught us, that this piece represents. Dad was such a hard worker and as soon as we were old enough he had myself, Elaine and our brother Gavin, out working with him in workshops making all sorts. We didn’t get away with anything, we had to work hard, pay attention, do as we had been asked, work safely and always make sure the kettle was on. He taught us the worth and satisfaction of earning our money through hard work. That everything we did should be our best and have integrity. He treated myself and Elaine exactly the same as Gavin when we were working. He taught myself and my sister how to let negative comments and looks wash over us when we were the only females in a workshop or on site. I don’t know if was by design but dad taught us that being a woman in male dominated workplaces should never stop us from achieving what we wanted to do.
‘That would look great on me’
Fiona Martin & Elaine Lister, August 13, 2018
Fiona – I loved that dad would wear whatever he wanted, and I was always looking out for things he would like when I was going through a pile of vintage clothes for myself. But he had this bad habit of trying on something of yours and you wouldn’t get it back. He said the fateful words ‘That would look great on me’ the day I came home with a double-breasted three-quarter length denim jacket. I didn’t get a look in, but it became one of his signature jackets. It was meant to be.
Elaine - You do not realise how many memories an item of clothing can hold.
My dad’s clothing holds many years it made my heart leap to see my sister pull them out of the cloakroom at mum & dads house. It was like he was still here, the smell of metal from his work jackets, the smell of my dad’s aftershave on his good jackets. Don’t even get me started on the waistcoats with a combination of my uncle’s yellow tie.
Clothes were an important part of my dad’s identity and he made his own fashion that he was not afraid to show off to the world all topped off with his hat.....’Fran the hat’ as he became known.
Forever in blue jeans is very apt for my dad as he seemed to get away with wearing jeans even to weddings....everyone accepted dad for who he was and what he wore. My dad never faded into the crowd and I am very glad we as a family and all his friends walked by a man who stood for what he believed in.
Father’s Day
Fiona Martin, Elaine Lister, Gavin Martin, Joan Martin, Jack Lister, 2018
Fiona - We had never really made a fuss of Father’s Day before, well apart for the token socks and sweets. There are no words for the feeling of something being the last with dad. I wanted to show him how important he was to me and that he would be with me forever, so I designed a memorial tattoo, which I got and had to hide from him for 2 very itchy days. Imagine which is his song. The source of the River Liffey in Dublin, down to Blessington where dad fished and camped as a kid, also where he wants some of his ashes spread, so part of him will flow through Dublin forever. Six flying birds representing each one of us. We will always fly together, dad loved it. The day after his funeral I had a feather from the order of service added. Another day dedicated to him. It was an amazing day filled with love and celebration. A day that has changed me forever.
Elaine - Father’s Day gift from Jack to Frandad was always sweets and my gift was always a top he liked, slim fitting with grandad collar usually grey or army green. Dad loved his presents but never expected a lot from us the simple things in life please dad so much more.
Father’s Day this year was no exception and we bought him all the usual things and spent the day together and went to the painters. My last Father’s Day gift of the grey shirt is hanging on the coat stand in the exhibition in the window.
This family group photo was our last, not that we knew it or wanted to know that at the time yet it is a happy photo taken in mum and dad’s home.
This installation is to replicate our mum & dads with our special family photo and all the cards we each gave him that very day, each with our own personal photos and words. Even down to the radiator cover in the background and his painting of his ‘Girls’ behind us.
I know everyone thinks they have the best dad in the world but you would be very hard pushed to beat ours.
How can one person have done so many things along the way and lived everyday as it came......you will be a very hard act to follow dad.
I miss you more as the days go by but only because I am usually doing something you have taught me, showed me how to do or in your stubborn way tell me I am doing wrong.
I am trying to still do it right dad....but miss you telling me so.
Love you dad and as I used to say as I was leaving ‘see you later dad’ and you would shout back as I was walking out the door ‘love you chicken’.
I miss you simply calling me ‘chicken’.
Last Painting
Fran Martin, June 18, 2018
Fiona - As soon as dad announced he was going to the Painters to paint, I knew it was going to be his last time painting, and as it turned out, the last time he visited the Painters too. Words can’t describe how that felt. As I sat very still and quiet next to him on the bench by the door, I watched an artist make his last comment on the world. An experience I privileged to have been a part of.
Elaine - On Monday 18 June it was another hot day but I had no idea that Fiona and I would be taking dad out to the pub for the last time.....but on the positive thinking of replaying that day there is a positive for us all to remember. Dad was a very spirited man and when he asked me to clear out his painting studio with him back in May 2018 he knew what he was instructing me to do for the last time with his painting equipment. My mum was heartbroken to watch dad put away his easel.
The positive is that dad did paint again and where better than in the painters with his two daughters....painting his crimson flower. With his paint box open, canvas on the table using his favourite brush he found a new energy and smiled as he painted in total silence as he did. With cigarettes beside him, his ice lolly propped in the white cup with the Pepsi melting it, John Lennon’s on dad was in his element.
Both Fiona and I watched a man at his best, at peace and enjoying his day, how lucky we both are to have such a memory that most people will never have. One thing my dad has taught me and being with him the last few weeks of his life is that you cannot get time back....no amount of money would ever buy you back valuable time.
This day although is sad as dad never left the house again after that Monday but how very poetic he painted on that day. And Fiona pointed out that dad knew this and wanted to do his last painting.
All famous artists have a last unfinished piece and this is our dads. Enjoy as it is most important piece.
Our Legend
Fiona Martin & Mark Wooldridge, 2018
Fiona - My friend Mark, a film maker, helped me put this together. We started it before dad died and we finished it days before the funeral. So, I suppose you can call it a time piece. I wanted to make it for all my family as something that would connect us. What formed was the telling of the love story of my mum and dad. How poignant the song ‘Imagine’ truly is in the story of my dad.
The interview with my mum is from 2005 and was part of an art installation I did at university. The recording of my dad singing was carefully transferred from a dusty old cassette tape recorded at a pub karaoke in the early 90s.
It was ‘pure magic’ hearing my dad’s voice again.
