80's child

I was born in 1974 so really I'm a 70's child. I have many cherished memories of those early years but it was the crazed era of the 80's that really influenced me. I wanted to use some images I took while visiting the meat packing district in Manhattan last year.  On this particular day, ads for an art show were plastered on the walls and Madonna's face was EVERYWHERE. I simply went MAD with photos. I'm in LOVE with this page.

Written on the side are all the things I remember from the 80's Yuppy prep, E.T., Sea Wees Dolls, Atari, Pac Man, Menudo, New Edition, Prince and those black rubber bracelets I wore by the armful. I tried to attach one to the page but it didn't make visual sense.

 Since my parents had us watch the news, I remember lots of current events- Ryan White and AIDS, The Space Shuttle Explosion, Baby Jessica and Mary Lou Retton. Then there are things specific to growing up in the South Bronx: Graffiti on subway cars, using rubber bands and safety pins to make the bottom of your jeans "skinny", artist Keith Haring, pervasive use of crack cocaine (NOT BY US), Electric Bugaloo, Soul Train, Grand Master Flash and break dancing which STARTED in the South Bronx and spread everywhere.

My parents were VERY good at shielding us from the drug scene but it was so pervasive in the Bronx we would regularly see hundreds of empty crack vials spread out on our school playground floor. They glittered in the morning light. Their tops came in red, white, yellow, blue, purple, light blue an I remember wondering if each was a different flavor! My brother, 2 sisters and I were so naive we would pick them up and collect them. Then our Mom found our cache and FREAKED OUT. David has a similar story about growing up in Brooklyn with the SAME freak out coming from his grandmother. And in Brooklyn, boys would fold up the hem on the jeans to make them skinny.

Here are a couple of detail shots. But really, I just liked how the photos looked.

I just love how GEOMETRIC this design came out. The photos dictated everything. Those walls are now totally different- maybe I'll go shoot them again.



For this layout I used Bazill kraft paper, a bingo card, blue circle tape from the August Kreatorville Kraft Kit, strips are from a New York City street map and some AMAZING Autumn Leaves letter stamps which you can check out here. Oh and Smooch spritz in Midnight and Silver Foil. Alphas are from American Crafts and I got them on Artfire.com.

This was so fun I'll probably be doing some more layouts on "wall art" Williamsburg has so many amazing graffiti walls! I wish I had taken photos of the subway trains and Keith Haring murals we used to see all over the place when I was growing up. I had a Kodak Disc camera and used to shoot all the family events- yes even at 12 years old. Holy canoli!!! I can't believe I forgot to include that in the page!!!! I LOVED my Kodak Disc camera!!!

Let me put an end to this trip down memory lane- Miss Lola needs her Mommy...

Muchos SmOoChEs!!
M.