Day 48: My Forgotten Life in Art Part One

Today I was going through stuff in the back of the top shelf of my closet. I opened this velveteen covered Hickory Farms box, which has seen better days.

You know when you've forgotten something even existed but when you see it again, it looks so familiar? That's this book:

This one too:

Who uses tracing paper in a boat?!

Before I start showing my preteen and teenage "artwork", I must explain that none of this was for school. Apart from ae few evening classes at Jacob Kramer in the late '80s when I lived in Leeds, I have not done art in school since fifth or sixth grade, or even earlier. This was purely a hobby and I guess how I filled my time in the Dark Ages before the Internet. I never liked creating on demand.

I think this dachshund has been chowing down too much dog food.

I have no memory of actually doing these drawings, i.e., where in the house I sat to draw. I also was surprised to find that I had done so many drawings. I do vaguely remember buying the charcoal and pastels...

I was very into horses. I was disappointed that we didn't move to Palos Verdes; there were no horses in Manhattan Beach. Something happened with the nose here...

 Rover?

I guess this one was too rectangular...

But mostly I drew the same angry mustang, over and over. What would a shrink make of this?

 

Here's Savage Spirit's (I think that was a title of a book) brother... He's more of a union organizer.


 Oh. My obsession with mustangs had nothing to do with the fact that my high school team was called the Mustangs. I had no school/team spirit. I'll leave you with a hint of what's coming in part two. I liked drawing hair.

Day 47: Some of My Own Stuff Part One

Yes, my parents have a lot of stuff to go through, but so do I.

This is a Barbie key ring that Craig Roose gave me for my birthday. I used it for a while.

But you can see here what the problem was...

I received this Mary Quant mini shoulder bag for my birthday when I was 9 or 10. It came with snap-on flowers in white, black and navy. I used it a lot years later in the punk and post-punk days.

Luke cleaned it up since this picture was taken in April.

I got these groovy stickers when I was 11. I forgot to take a shot of the inside. I think it says what class I was in.

In the summer of 1967, we spent a few weeks in Florida, and visited St. Augustine, the oldest city in the USA. I've never been back. I didn't use this giant pencil much as it was a bit unwieldy.

I used to seriously collect flamingos, the lawn variety and smaller. I don't remember where I got any of these, though the beaded one might be African. The little one is fuzzy!

Brendan (RIP) gave me this kitty for my birthday at Noura's (also missed) in 2004.

Many of you might know of my doll collection. This one, Tammy, is from the 60s, but a recent acquisition. My childhood friend, Jill,  had Tammy's mother back in the 60s, who we named Ma Romanoff. so I guess this is Tammy Romanoff.

Day 46: Stuff on the Walls Part Two

Okay, these aren't technically on the wall, but on the beams in the family room. Anybody who has ever been in this house has been known to ask if we still have those Peanuts pictures. Of course! All through the sixties and until they stopped doing them in the mid to late seventies, my mom would use a Peanuts wall calendar. These were printed on high quality cardboard (I will do a post on old calendars and show the date bit) and brightly colored. Shortly after we moved in, in 1972 my mom cut the cartoons from a bunch of old calendars and staple gunned them to the beams, on both sides. There they have remained ever since!

 The dartboard has always been above the fireplace. In early years it used to feature a photo of Bobby Sherman or Donny Osmond; in 1979 I stuck a photo of Greg "Willy" Williams on it (of The Others and briefly in the Weirdos; does anyone know what happened to him?) when he didn't come to a dinner party I threw in his honor. (I also threw a bag of spaghetti at him at the Fleetwood.)

Some of the colors have faded a bit, but they have been up for nearly half a century now! Here you can see the Pachinko machine; more photos of that later...

 The desert painting used to hang in the living room in Gardena. Then I believe it was up at the Pinyon Crest cabin for a while, but it's been in the family room for the past two decades or so.

 This DeGrazia painting hung above the living room fireplace for decades, then was moved to the hallway.

And the DeGrazia roadrunner also moved, to my brother's old room.

Day 45: On the Couch

When we moved here in 1972, our green tweed living room couch from Gardena was put in the family room, and my mom bought a new plush grey high-backed number. That one moved down to the family room in 1984, when my mom bought the wood-framed sectional that still resides in the same spot today. It's not the most comfortable couch, as the fabric is scratchy and it's got hard wooden arm rests, but that hasn't stopped people from dozing on it. This shot of a sleeping beauty was from a dinner party I threw in 1984:

This was from the same dinner party. Perhaps it was my company, or my cooking.

Kevin Wood wasn't at that dinner party, but here he is during another party, downstairs. That's the 1972 couch, which is still in the same position today. You can also see the rotary phone, a collection of National Geographics (those are gone, surprisingly), part of my record collection (The Only Ones, The Fifth Dimension, and I can't make out the middle one), my beloved Soviet poster of a cowboy Reagan riding a nuclear warhead (nod to Kubrick; that poster was ruined in a flood), part of an LA Rams lamp I just recently got rid of, and a comic done by my friend James from Bournemouth, with whom I have lost touch.

Back upstairs in the living room, here are the kids on and around the new couch, Thanksgiving 1984, just before I moved to Leeds. My parents had recently been to Australia so the koalas were on the couch. That's my Aunt Harriet in the background, along with Charlie Schumann, a friend of my parents.

My mom had those drapes custom made in 1972. I finally replaced them last year.

Day 44: Some Photos My Father Took

My father bought a digital camera before I did, in 2003 I think. In latter years he would take his card to Costco, get prints made, and then erase the contents of his camera; he didn't worry about backups or have any desire to email any shots to anyone. But the first few years, when I was around, I managed to copy some photos onto his Mac. So these are some shots he took around the house between 2006 and 2007.

My nephew Luke liked to do yard work. this is the front yard; I can't believe how much grass and foliage there is... Now it's all drought-friendly dirt.

Rake, Luke, rake!!
 

 My brother and Luke in the driveway. Most of those jade trees are gone now, too. You can see some renovating going on on the kitty corner house.

 Luke is fascinated by something.

My brother on the couch that has been there since 1984. This is 2006.

Luke looks at my Weird California and Amphigorey books...

Luke and my sister in the den. They both look like zombies. Note the Bumble in the background.

 My mom, watching TV.

This was not taken in the house, but I thought I'd throw it in since it was on the same digital "roll". My parents on their 50th anniversary, February 20, 2007.