PARENTING AND BEING A CHILD 1970's STYLE

In the 70's being a child was an all together different experience than it is today.

Most families remained in the one family home their entire lives and we knew all the people in our street. Shops streets and neighborhoods quietly remained the same. It was a great comfort and to this day I am still assured by the few remaining details in my old neighbor hood that have been left unchanged.

Parents were different too...

Men's pants were unashamedly tight and high at was all at brow height as a small child and just too much to take in. It was unavoidable teachers rocked these pants too!

An innocent visit to the local super market or worse still your friends house was met with the unbridled breasts of your best friends Mum. Thin t shirts and areola were swirling about our innocent heads like looming balloons. It was all wrong.

Even Sesame Street wasn't safe.

Barbecues involved children playing with fire eating carcinogenic blackened meat, parents inhaling Viscount Cigarettes and swilling copious amounts of alcohol.

All this followed by bundling the gang into the family vehicle safety restraint free and if you were really lucky Dad was drunk and made the drive like a visit to Luna Park - flying over railway lines and ditches the car becoming semi airborne was a thrilling treat, Mums near naked boobs slamming you in the temple. You would go home to no air conditioning in summer sleep in the back yard on a divan and smother yourselves in a spray on insect repellent - who knows what that had in it?

No one had food allergies or their child diagnosed with mental issues or challenges, no one had dyslexia, hair straighteners, braces or things like moles removed from their faces - you had what you had and dealt with it. This made for some pretty fascinating school photos its like a shop of horrors or an ugly meet. There were obese children - they got called fat. There were 'slow' kids and smart kids and that was it. Teachers did not implement 'Rock and Water' self esteem building policies if they didn't like what you did they got to hit you with their hand or a wooden rod.

So there was danger sex and violence back then too - it was just all at school.

How did our parents survive with out mobile devices? They made plans and stuck to them. Anticipated and planned them...it didn't matter if we dreaded them we had to go there was no getting out of it besides Dad might drive drunk over the railway tracks so it was always worth it.

Parents and children experienced real ANTICIPATION! Such sweet delight. As a child you would wait all year to perhaps receive your most wanted toy and the parent had the power to either deliver or restrain from giving the object of joy. The parents had the power. Half the joy as a child in the 70's was the agony of the wait, watching the TV commercials all year. Your little heart would race each time you got to drink the visuals in. And meanwhile you went out into the street to play and dodged all the drunk drivers in tight pants and ladies with their boobs out.

You behaved at home and at school or got hit and parents were more than happy to thank the teachers for the great work they were doing.

 I have very fond memories of my childhood and wouldn't change it even if I could.

1970s Food Trends

Thats me on the right.

Lisa @ Arthouse Direct!

I am so pleased to be teaching alongside a great team of talented Artists for Arthouse Direct. Classes to be held in Richmond Victoria Australia starting next month with Children and Adults invited to attend.


Please follow the link for more details and I hope to see you there!

Art Class Brochure

Another thing I do

 Along with sewing and a love of the visual I have always drawn and am happy with about any medium although the soft willow charcoal has its certain charm ink pens and Aquarelle (water soluble pencils) are my tried and true favorites.

My themes are usually people and they have gone through one metamorphose after another. I do find however themes of loneliness or solitude reappear I do not see either state negative I find it can feed the soul re energise and refuel me...another constant is humans embracing and happy families.

These are two of my favorite images they are framed beautifully although this is not shown and do illustrate isolation beautifully to me, they are painted on small canvas boards and I used oil paints - my first try. After they were complete I took some lessons in oil painting but preferred my own methods.

This image MY VIEW FROM THE MOON was inspired by friend of mine.

This is more a self portrait

CLARA TAKES ON THE WORLD

I must have been feeling brave that day.
A favorite style and image of mine based on friendship is the following its a hand drawn collage featuring text, painted and refined digitally - but enjoy creating in a hands on way.

MATILDA AND SCARLETT

Then there are the love and hugs as mushy as it gets
TARRED WITH THE SAME BRUSH

AUTUMN IN YOUR ARMS is a part of a series of vintage inspired works that can be seen and purchased as cards and prints here THAT CERTAIN KIND OF CHARM 

and here is a new kind of theme coming through another palette.

COME ALONG LITTLE ONE
I still love to draw and its mostly for myself, to relax - completely, I love the smell of paper, the ink, the pencil sharpening the dirty paint water the mess the drips, I even enjoy the cleaning up afterwards, there is little that comes close to that sort of quiet meditation - its a good kind of solitude.

But we all love company.

LONNY AND SPROCKET

For a broader overview you can see the entire portfolio here

CHANGE vs FEELING SHORT CHANGED

Change vs feeling short changed...lets start with change, the changes that occur as a result of simply being human, human development takes place largely unbeknown to the individual during life's early stages. A child learns to reach, sit up crawl, walk and speak within the first 2 years of its life although for the most part the individual is completely unaware of the giant progression and leaps taken forward in this nubile stage. The childhood years and teen years are full of milestones we are all aware of from reading and writing to physicality and rights of passage, running races, ticking off each school year and phase - again all vast and broad changes and stages of development mark these years although during this time we are much more aware.

Change in adulthood...I always touted myself or thought as myself as an individual who embraced and welcomed change, and for the most part I have even when the cards did not play out as anticipated I brightly took on what I was dealt good bad or indifferent. Now people I am by no ways a fatalist I am definitely a determinist which leads me to the resistance I am feeling in changing at present, or dually present frustration at not changing fast enough.

Being aware of change, initiating it, pushing for it is all fine and good but sometimes life and our brains are resistant - thus the rub...a comfortable rut.

So what leads us to true change, even minute?
Feeling short changed : That discomfort the grit, either it gets the better of you or you use it for impetus to change. I have personally witnessed individuals that have let a knock back or knock on their tail mar them permanently. 'It was all good till'...'If only it had have gone my way'...etc. Just as I have known persons with mammoth burdens and life challenges to have great bright spirits and get on all the same. So what about us mere mortals with only the self to instigate the change either we get comfortable in the discomfort and have an unhealthy relationship with  the resentment it builds within or we action the desired change. Behavior is so clear and easy to speak of until the heart and mind meet bringing us to emotion.

The 'rub' needs to be of enough discomfort or the change is rewarding so that we move towards it without resistance, so why when this is true do we sometimes waste time and rob ourselves, short changing ourselves of the benefits of positive change? I think its the rut, the hammy wheel, the wind is breezing through our little hamster feet and we feel we are moving, such effort, around and around, stepping of requires a wee leap of faith, but I imagine the hamster me landing then rolling and and writhing the spine back and forth like a dog face up on the lawn, then perhaps some bounding, tongue lagging out the side of the mouth happily panting after it, so I am morphing from hamster to dog - stick with me.

I have certainly had enough 'rub and grit' to require change so I will continue to embrace change and sometimes have to accept its sluggish rate.

This portrait of me taken by a talented friend - its more about reach, the pose, the tentative balance, the metal stretch. Perhaps this is required so we do not short change ourselves.

I will bend over backwards for myself like I used to for others and I will make the changes for me...so I can better embrace life. Amen.

LISA DEFAZIO STYLIST

Over the past five or so years I have had the good fortune to work with some of the best photographers in Melbourne. From Styling to Fashion to modeling for more Emotive & Conceptual works this new site is to promote that - its short but sweet, I shall add to it and fill you all in.

 Lisa Defazio Stylist Designer

And What of Love?

And what of love?
What becomes of love?

What is the nucleolus of the love?
What is the motivation of the love?

Is love timely, is it wrong and incorrect?
Can love be wasted?

Is love ever wasted?
What if a love exists for 20 years and dies?
What if it exists in a few heart beats as some fantasy catches your eye?

I believe love is never in vain, never wasted and never a futile emotion. I believe love should lead, it should be the invisible aether thread pulling us forth by the neck towards love and desires...

of all kinds.

I have many loves of objects and things, experiences and times of songs and rhymes, people and pets, memories and notions. My loves are outlined here in previous posts but love deep profound love....it is an altogether different thing, it exists in both forms in good and bad.

Love Like a Serpent

Some people love like a serpent with stealth and an ill and malicious motivation their lust and desire when disguised may tempt you all the same.
The serpent strangles and constricts their aim to smother you.
Constriction applied as a reaction to your every move.



If you have ever loved a serpent then woken one day suddenly to realize they are wrong and they are cold, the look in their eye was not one of love but of the intense longing to see you immobilized and wither till you die,

you wake in shock,

move away and continue on.



Love Like Heaven

A Love Like Heaven exults and glorifies us, our chests expand and heave, our minds and souls free.
Love like heaven is delicious and heady euphoric. 
To love like this is open and fair it is the blossoming of our hearts and minds, our souls and is conscious dreamy and while like a fine intoxicating vapor it is definite and resonate,
we recognize it,
it arrests us as it peals through out our being.

Love like heaven is a gentle sweet embrace,
it is barely being held,
there is room to move to grow,
it is a space where good intentions and actions can grow and multiply can enhance and beautify.

Love like heaven one day might come to me.

(Amazing artwork by Fernando Vincente)

:::SUBURBAN CHIC ::: SHITTY CHIC (C):::

Ok so as we have established I was a child of the 70's. So many images and icons are burnt into my consciousness. My penchant for the bad taste of the era comes in a close second to the love I have for mid century design - but its an entirely new sub category with a name I have coined myself...'Shitty Chic'. Items so ultimately vulgar and repulsive they are magnificent in all their glory. We are talking hash, trash, so bad its good.

To understand this new love affair lets just say it was always going to be fashion or art for me but I did seriously consider becoming an Industrial Designer - I am still not over perspex yet. Most fashion fads and fashions follow through to decor then food, the 90's Spanish thing, 80's Tex Mex...well things that occurred in the 70's food and kitchen wise are kind of inexplicable and there was a serious lag with some 50's cuisine being dragged along and 'updated' along the way.
Lately I have been indulging in this specific fetish and it has me so on! No place is sacred especially the kitchen. I have been collecting bad taste or 'Shitty Chic' tablecloths and ugly plastic plates and all - they are hideously lovely. May post pic's of Shitty Chic BBQ I am planning to torture my friends with at a later date, I am still busy collecting. Meanwhile here are some ideas for the menu of the Shitty Chic Book of Cuisine.

 Fancy a Terrine or some slab of Pate?

Cookbooks contained savory jelly's using Brine. Faux french food a plenty! Beef Burgundy, Steak Diane, Chocolate Mousse and a drum roll for the suburban fav' of the day....Apricot chicken - what delight a sachet of French Onion Soup & a can of Apricot nectar poured over chicken pieces in the oven could create - I must confess it was a childhood favorite.

Anyone else remember Aussie Chinese food? Kai se mein? Cool = Cabbage, another packet of another kind of soup Chicken Noodle and Mince and Viola you could feed 30 people for like $3.00....a lot of nosh for not a lot of dosh! Get me my poncho...

There were salad plates a plenty - very spesh.

Gherkins Pickles and Condiments had a special place.

T- Bones were the 'it' meat cut of the day.

Cabana was the exotic meat always paired with Coon aged cheese, the plastic film like flack jacket to cut through. You used your electric can opener to open the Beetroot and Electric Knife to carve any meat. We did a lot of meat in those days, there was no issue with fat that was the best part mmmm.....'nice and fatty'.

Check the 'Dolly' hair cut on this Mum.

The clothes and the decor was vulgar it was such an assault visually...in its own ' you need new pupils' it was bad taste heaven.

Lets toast with a Shandie to bad taste heaven...or would rather some Fruit Punch? We had this exact same bowl and cups! I wonder if I can find one?