Latest / WHAT I'VE LEARNT / What I've Learnt - Melissa LaBozetta

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What I've Learnt - Melissa LaBozetta · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa La Bosetta, an Italian-Australian artist based in Melbourne, is now a global ambassador for the Nonviolence Project Foundation, supporting unique educational programs to prevent and reduce violence around the world, and she's in very good company.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Joining other fellow non-violence ambassadors for peace, Yoko Ono, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr, Lionel Messi, Patricia Gucci, Una Chaplin, and many other artists, Melissa is a passionate advocate, creator, and mother of three whose art is sold around the world.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: As a nonviolence ambassador, Melissa has designed her own knotted dun sculpture, originally created by Swedish artist Carl Frederick Roswad as a symbol of peace in tribute to his friend John Lennon's death.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Best known for her life drawings and abstract pieces, Melissa has named her sculpture Ocean of Love.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: The three-dimensional sculpture was painted with blues representing an ocean of trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, and faith.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: The gold, which represents the country's worldwide, is also interpreted as the master healer.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: In February of 2020, the replicas of Ocean of Love Sculpture will be launched and available soon after in prominent international galleries, including the Saatchi Gallery, to purchase and raise money for the Nonviolence Project Foundation.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The funds will help the foundation's work since 1993 in educating and raising awareness around the world on the benefits of resolving conflicts peacefully.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa says, I'm hopeful that my sculpture moves people.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also hopeful that this incredible piece starts a conversation that spreads love and resonates with people.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: The more we talk and communicate the message of hope and peace, the better we will be, she says.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I chat to the artist and mother of three about her strict Catholic upbringing, her rogue but adored Italian father, her erotic and sensual art honouring women everywhere, and what it's like being married to an international football hero.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd like to welcome Melissa La Bossetta, the Melbourne painter and artist, gorgeous woman, and I'm just so happy to have you on the Wannover Podcast.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Deb.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited to be here.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: We might just give our listeners a little bit of a taste of how we met.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually walking in Gravel Street and I walked past this absolutely stunning painting of Wonder Woman.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, this is very seriously cool.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna walk in and have a chat to whoever's running this show.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there you were, covered in your paint splattered overalls, all different colours, looking hot, looking like running around like I felt like I'd walked into a film set, just saying.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this beautiful gallery of your work, which is really a celebration of the female form in so many different ways.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, not only are you a beautiful woman, and we talk we talked a lot, but I love the way that you embrace and and reflect the female form.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about how you started and and and also your background, where you came from.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Grew up in an Italian family.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've told you that before, and very strict, very, very strict Italian family.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I grew up in Bea Morris, you know Beaumoris.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: So back in my day in the 70s, early, you know, there were no, you didn't really get to Greeks or Italians or multi, you didn't get that multi-culture.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I went, and my father was very colourful, Deb.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that's calling colourful, okay?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Italian colourful.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: You you know where I'm going with that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I I think the Lianos, I've I've interviewed Bettina on the show, and she talks about that very interesting Italian history.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the violent cases.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, there's a few of those.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So life was really um, I went to four primary schools.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say that.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: So four primary schools means we had to move four times.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And four primary schools into Anglo was really tough.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I was brown and dark skinned.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So every single school was like, you're a wog, go back to your own country, you're a black Sambo.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't listen, don't now.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say one thing right now.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love every single one of them.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was tough then, yes.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: They knew no better.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going home to this Italian family saying, don't speak Italian in the house, I've got to mingle with these Aussie kids, you know, start speaking Australian, all these sorts of things.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And drawing for me was my, it would always take me somewhere else.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So drawing from a really early age, whether it was drawing greyhounds, my dad loved horses and greyhounds, so I would be drawing horses and greyhounds.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I loved horses as well.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Cats, dogs, I don't know if you remember that cartoon snake back in the day.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all of these.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I was I wanted to be a cartoon artist, and that was my dream.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really where it all started.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: The going back there.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So your painting was your solace, it was your way of finding comfort when you felt like you were an outsider of sorts.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Never, never, never and to this day, Australia's not home to me, but I love it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But when I go over to Italy and France, there's home.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: I feel normal.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's quite it's not the Aussie's fault, it's just how I and I've got this Aussie accent.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you I can't deny.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a very strong Italian community that grew up here, and you're part of that.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit, also, just coming back to your reference to the conservatism of your family.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Was that a Catholic religious base?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and what sort of give me some idea of how that tone was in the family with other siblings, and what was the nature of that conservatism?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is it's quite interesting.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So my nonna, my grandmother, she was church every Sunday, right?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up going to church with her every single Sunday.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I wanted to, Jesus, shit to drag me, but I'd go with her.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: But my father, now look at my father and his parents, they were really religious.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: But my dad, back in the island of Stromboli, this is where my father's from, it's an island off Sicily.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, it's the volcano, the coolest place on the world, in the world.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: But he was with the Ulta Boys back then.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: He was nine years old, and to this day, he saw the priest having sex with the nun.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: So so my dad's right, God, you've got to love this story, Deb.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So my dad would say to us in the house in Italian, I won't say the words because I I know we're going, we're gonna do this podcast, really badly.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: He'd go, the priesthood, the Catholics, it's a crock of whatever.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: You kids, when you get older, you just make your own decisions.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I saw.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: So he was really anti-it, but not the belief that people enjoyed believing in something.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: He just didn't, because he was a young boy and he saw the priest.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't supposed to happen.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we certainly know that historically that came what we would call an epidemic of sorts throughout the church.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like he was, you know, some sort of aberration in what he saw from what we understand now.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then as a young boy, he obviously carried that confusion.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and and so, really, are you saying he would still abide by the the principles of his religion, but still be torn?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and yes, did he give you then license to be freer in your thinking?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yes, he did, but this is where the strictness came in.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So he gave me, so my dad would be the type of guy that if I came out in a really skimpy little mini skirt, he'd go, he'd be proud, he'd say, in Italian, he'd say, Listen, you got it, go faunt it, right?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: But in the next breath, I'm not allowed out until a certain time, and I've got to be home in a certain time, and I was friendly until I was 21.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So in one way, he gave me plenty of freedom, but in the other, he was my dad was a nightmare.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: He really was, he was tawning my side forever, but he gave me who I am as well.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense, my comment?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he gave you your strength and your resilience, but also clearly, he himself was clearly torn by the principles of what he how he was raised, and therefore you got this mixed message yourself.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what was your response to that?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how did you, as a young girl, were you did you have siblings?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had an older brother.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was a twin, but it didn't survive.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that was quite interesting.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Mummy, you know, back because in mum's day, they didn't do scans, so mum passed it after me in the hospital.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's quite a trick freaky thing because I feel like my twin's always with me in the spiritual world, which is quite amazing.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but my brother was six years older than I.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So there was he and my go back to my dad being colourful and and he made my well, not made, my brother wanted to be a chef, so he was working at Leo Spaghetti Bar in St.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Kilda from the A.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my favorite.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: We grew up going there.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, my favorite, my entire family.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday night off to Leo's for a bit of amazing, Deb.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he was there from 13 years of age to 21 years of age.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my brother's life.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I the rebel, because I had the Aussie, he didn't get the same issues with me with the Aussie kids, because he started working so soon after primary school that it sort of he didn't really mingle with kids much.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: He was sort of in the kitchen and then he went to do William Anglis had studied and was with Italians.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't know, he had to learn Italian very quickly because the chef didn't speak English back then.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So he's his upbringing was a little bit different to mine.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but and also as a woman, you would be subject like it just fairly or unfairly.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you probably cocked it in a different way.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so your response was to, as you say, you refer to yourself as a rebel or somebody who okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So how did that play out?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And at what sort of age did that start?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess right.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll go to the first time a kid tried to call me a black sambal, I punched them in the face, and that was in great prep.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I would knock, I was such a tough.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I used to get called Wonder Woman in prep in in prep because everyone would come to me to help them with fights and battles, and every my whole years in primary school from prep to six, every primary school I went to, I was Wonder Woman, and I would always help everyone.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's quite an you know, Nicole Livingston, God bless her, the Olympic swimmer.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I went to primary school with her, one of the schools at Parkdone.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: To this day, we saw each other about seven years ago, and as soon as she saw my face, because I punched her in the face because she was having a fight with another girl at the school.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, years later, she goes on to be this Olympic champion.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh my god.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's quite funny.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And also just coming back to your Wonder Woman reference, just for our listeners, um, as I, you know, in my intro, I talk about the Wonder Woman painting that brought me into your store, one of which I've obviously commissioned and want you to do for me.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is it is interesting because it is a very pivotal um and emblematic painting for you because it has that symbol symbolism where you have felt your whole life like you've had to be Wonder Woman.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of pressure.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Very much so.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then you grow up, oh Deb, I'll just go out and say this.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Then I'm 18 years old and I'm in St.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Kilda Road police station.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Mind you, let me just tell you in a skimpy nighty, because my dad at seven o'clock in the morning, there's squat cars and uh under undercover cops swarming my house, and my dad's been taken in for let's not even go, I don't even know what it was for because there was that many things.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm in so this is another under these lights, sweating in my 90, my little skimpy 90, because they wouldn't let me get dressed.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you've gone from I grew up having to be this tough girl because my dad, boy, it was full on.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was so just just elaborating on that without obviously things you don't want to reveal, but are you implying that he was hauled in because he had basically there was obviously some sort of there was things going down in the markets.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Here, my dad was a fruiter, so there was things going down, and of course, look, this one he thankfully it wasn't him, but of course, he was involved with so many different things, Deb.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're just keeping it a little bit until you know, but um bless him, you know.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was only just talking about this with someone last night, and and over the oh this whole year.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I now talk about my dad proudly.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed anymore because I love him and he's my dad, and it takes a long time, you know that you you grow up going, oh yeah, and then you suddenly see what they've been trying to do and how, but I do also think from what you're you're describing, it sets a really interesting tone for the path that you've taken.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because you you know, to do what you do and the way you do it, it's with courage and bravery and honesty.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm free now, Deb.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm free, I'm not I'm not scared anymore.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's where the six bless.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I use the word success because it's uh it's a blessing.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing really well, and I think it's because I'm finally free and I'm not afraid to express who I am and what I want to put on a canvas.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it does very much so.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what freed you?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think has freed you?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not as I'm not scared of being my dad's daughter anymore.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not scared of a man controlling me.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not scared of what people think anymore.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not scared, because even to this day, my I love my aunties.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: My dad's got seven brothers and sisters, one passed away, but even growing up, not the ones I was close with, but there was about three that I'm not so close with, I love them, but they look at me like, oh, Sam's daughter, she's gonna be exactly like her father.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm crazy and fun and all this sort of stuff.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a crazy fun-loving side to my dad, but I just took that goodness, I didn't take the bad stuff, you know, and my brother never took the bad stuff.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got that label, even to this day.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's, I won't mention who they are, but there's people that still label me, but I don't care anymore.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is very clear is you have found your calling and you have carved yourself quite a beautiful career.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, your life drawings are colourful and celebratory, they celebrate the female form and like your other works, have a vibrant sense of abstraction about them.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what's inspired you to, I suppose you do a lot of beautiful nude work, and a lot of your paintings are just there, there's a passion.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of them has this sort of aura about them.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about how you moved from, as you said, wanting to be a cartoon artist to these extraordinary, and we can see one in the background here, these extraordinary portraits.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful transition, and I know exactly what it's all about, and it's similar to what we're talking about.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's growing into my body and and loving myself so much that the oh, I'm getting goosebumps that I want to put it all onto a canvas and create that woman.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that woman, because I everyone always says, Is that you?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is that you?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is that portrait you?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: None of them are me, but there's a piece of me in every single one of them.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because you did the next girl that's coming, we've we all come from one.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's the freaky thing, all of us, yeah.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the empowerment, the beauty, the emotion that goes into these pieces of work is about a woman that has grown up and has fallen in love with herself.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And because I am, I feel I I'm quite a sexual, confident woman as well.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Even I must admit, even you know, fear I'm just a confident girl.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Whether that comes from all the the brokenness and the upbringing and and learning to be strong, I'm not sure, but at the same time fearful of many things.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much contradictory stuff that goes on with all of that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: But then I grow up and I throw it all onto a canvas, and it's just it's the power within of us, of us as a woman.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I actually can see that, and I think that's what also drew me in to your store, and then obviously you and I talking and engaging because there's a universality in what you represent in all of these, and you do feel that, and you're a mother of three, I'm a mother of three.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the way to be the way that you own your sexuality and you reflect that other people's sexuality.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: That there's a sense that I suppose you make women very visible, like literally, when often women can be made invisible.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you make it you're the opposite.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: You've made them very visible and very powerful.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why you and I connected.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I look at you the same.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're very visible.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're very you look at what you're doing.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love what you are doing.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's um things.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you and obviously you've done lots of things in your life.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: I've read uh many, many things that you've done with your your journalism, lots of different things, but you've found this and you're passionate about it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that in itself is an excess.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is art.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with you.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I think women having voices and being seen is what you and I are about.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that you've done is you've carved this extraordinary.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean, a lot of your artwork is quite confronting for some people, not for you and I so much, but because it's quite brazen in its sexuality, yeah.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that in itself has a courage about it.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you've clearly found something very important here that you are owning, and there's an authenticity to that.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Was there anyone who sort of particularly nurtured your art in the early years?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like how did you, how did this come to be that you created this?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh gosh, I wish I could.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my best friends, I have to say my best friends, because really my dad, he wanted me to be this cartoonist for the Herald Sun when I was 10.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that was his, you know, that that that was dad's thing, right?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Never would my dad have thought I was gonna get to here.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: I had to hide it for a long time because on top of everything we've just talked about, let's go back to being in year 10.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: My English teacher pulls me in to the little one of the little rooms, belittles me, and says I'm done and I'm never gonna mount to anything because I copied, it's okay, but I copied the back of the book for this essay because I crammed this thing and she knew, so she calls me in and she does.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now I never forgot that.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was just with because we've got a group of my high school girls that we're all still really close, and we were just talking about Miss White yesterday.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: She's gone to heaven.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I would bless you, Miss White, whatever, but she was a reason I didn't go to uni because I thought I'd fail art.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, but it's a blessing in disguise because I found it my way.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have been able to, no one can tell me how to draw anything, actually.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's probably been the best thing because you can't teach an artist to be an artist.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Look at you, you can't teach that.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, I'm not going to say it's intrinsic, it's there's something within.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with you.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So she did a she did maybe the the best thing for me, but then I get to I I put it all under the cupboard.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: I did courses, I went and did uh fashion design, stayed in hospitality for a while, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then I got to fall pregnant with my twins, and which was 14 years ago, and that 13 years ago, and that's when I went, oh my God, I'm gonna be home with two children, two babies.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I can't do anything anymore.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go and get my canvas and I'm gonna follow my dream.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So then I'm got my husband going, eh, what's the thing on the walls?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then my dad's going, what are you doing now?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing it now?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: So too late to do your art now.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's too late.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I just went, nah, bugger you all.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going with this.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that was 12 years ago.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: So look at you now, babe.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it is, it is true.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's interesting you describe that.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like you have to just single-mindedly, and I feel that that's similarly, push your way through all of the emotional demands as a woman, be it, be it, you know, our dedication to children, to family, all of that is very real and very powerful.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: But this, what you've done is you've through quite a, I suppose, quite a tunnel that you've had to crawl through to get to where you want to be.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really interesting too, because you have the cultural challenges and particularly what you chose to be a specialist in.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're not painting cars.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or you can imagine my in-laws bless them, but I know they're still a bit like, oh, they can't even deal with it.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that's it's okay.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't put it in anyone's faces.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's the ones that are supposed to embrace it, are the ones that are supposed to embrace it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they're the ones I create for.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's trillions of us, there's millions and millions and millions and millions of people out there that love what we do.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: I I call, I say that to you, Debbie, as well, because you don't worry about the ones.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't worry about them anymore.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, if you don't want to listen or you don't want to buy, or you don't want to see, that's okay.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, get off the page.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so tell me, um, you've done some work as an ambassador for the nonviolence project.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Please talk to me about that.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: That really is interesting.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very interested.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Did you because I was wondering because that's the I'm proud as Punch because you know Ringo star?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, who was Ringo's wife?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I've gone blank.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: She's oh okay, Bono, Yoko No no, John Lennon was John Lennon.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, Ringo.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: John Lennon, not Ringo.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Very big difference.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: John Lennon.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: John Lennon is thinking of Ringo.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's all right.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're on the same.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now I now I know where you're going.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So so sorry, but I think I was, I think Ringo has got some involvement.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I brought Ringo up as well.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, John Lennon.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: So Yoko Bono, she's done a sculpture as well.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I just happened to be in London four years ago.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I went and exhibited actually in the Louvre.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was really very lucky.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and while I was there, my best friend's husband works for this non-violence project.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he pulled down one of the sculptures, and they're quite large, uh, fiberglass.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I went, Oh wow, I love that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Mel, would you like to be part of creating, you know, being one of the artists worldwide?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like to do it?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yes.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how it all came about.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then the nonviolence, the head of the project, is in Sweden, and he loved what I did so much.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I is that Carl Frederick Rudiswod?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a note here.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's the original.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's the original one that created the gun.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: So now it's all been created around that knotted gun.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you created a version of the famous non-violence or knotted gun.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell us a bit, just so for our listeners, the not just tell us a little bit about the knotted gun.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a sculpture that's gonna be.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fundraiser um all over the world, helping children, families, mothers in need, from freeing them from well, helping them from violence.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why that knotted gun is such a symbol because you can't, you know, shoot it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was actually after John Lennon's death that they created this because, yes, yes, quite amazing.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and I'm very fortunate to be ambassador here in Australia.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Very important.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's great, and I sell replicas of that sculpture.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And is that on your website?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: People can access it.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: They can actually access it.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm um internationally managed by a gallery in Paris called Singular, which is quite easy, and they can access my sculptures from their gallery.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy them.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting though?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: How amazing is that that you've got, you know, because you do have global, I know you have global um reach and impact.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I know there are people, there was one, there was a piece you were working on when I was there that you were selling to somebody overseas, quite a high profile celebrity.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, yeah.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've done the Macy Gray, Macy Gray, could be Salt Bay, not sure.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a few names that I've I like rattling off those names.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you what, you deserve it because they they're great, the pieces that you create.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me, and and how's the pandemic?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's been very challenging for many artists.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: What has been sort of some of the positive that's come out for you during the last couple of years?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, there's a dramatic shift.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Has it enlightened you in some way?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And how have you found the artist within has has survived through this period?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I have said this all along.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've been the luckiest person alive with what I do in the last two years because when it all started, I went crazy overseas because everyone's home looking at their walls.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So they're saving money in so many different ways.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like through singular art, I'm like, I was selling maybe five to six pieces overseas and interstate here the whole way through.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, my life and my art just went bang.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I never had time to worry about this pandemic.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And still to this day, I don't worry about any of it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it is what it is.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just keep going, let's just love each other, support each other no matter what someone, you know.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: I just we got to.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's there's more things to be worrying about than this virus, that's for sure.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a lot of things.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me on on a positive note, how um tell me how you I'm I'm interested.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're a mum of three, but you also have a very interesting husband.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about how you met your your husband and father of your children.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I know.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, my very handsome husband, he has had an incredible journey being a professional footballer, soccer.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And bless his dad, because back in the well, say the early 80s, back then he's playing for Myrtleford, because that's where they're from, they were tobacco farmers from Italy.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: And his father, because they had no freeways back in those days, so his dad would travel four and a half hours every single Friday for his son to be up here in the city to be somebody, and that all paid off because he eventually then he got into South Melbourne, and from South Melbourne, got contracted to West Ham over in the Premier League in the UK.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a pretty big deal.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Very big deal, and he must have been very good because it's very competitive.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was very good, I would admit, and then lived the dream, and then of course he retires from overseas in the UK and then gets the gig A League here opened up, and he goes in straight in to be the goalkeeper coach for Melbourne Victory for can you and tell us his name?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Steve Morton.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Italian, it's Stefano Mortone, but it's even better.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Steve Mortone, he's a pretty cool dude.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's pretty known.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, he's he's he's known, he's he's done well for himself.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds like you've both done well, and and he obviously supports what you do and thinks, I mean, you work very hard, and obviously he has Yeah, I think yes, I think it's taken him a little, I have to be honest, bless him, but it took him a little while to go back 11 years ago, 12 years ago, and he was there was a chat about him saying, well, Melmer, keep maybe keep it as a hobby.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you can't tell someone that's just got a dream that.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: But then he just saw, he started to realize, wow, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and here I am, and I know he's very proud.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Very children.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: My son, and Steve will laugh if he listens to this podcast.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal that he's their dad's Steve Mortone in our house because it's soccer.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: My my son's proving to be quite a little soccer boy, and then we're hoping for big things.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: But my son says he's so proud to be Melissa Lovacetta's son, and that for me just melts my heart, you know?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love that, and and it's really what we do, isn't it?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: To we we just to get that feedback from our kids is pretty special more than anyone in the world.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I've passed away tomorrow, I'm done, kids are proud of me.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's my biggest accomplishment.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I totally hear you, and I I I do I do resonate a similar feeling, you know.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: If my kids say, Oh Mom, we're proud of you, that's great.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me, um, just just finally, I I'm interested.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your kids are proud of you.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're in terms of the sexualization and the and the sort of sexual tone of some of the art, is that something that they've asked you about?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, you know what?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because they've been born into it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the twins were not even one year old.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my son to this day.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you you let's go back to them being four little midgets running around the house.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm creating boobs, and they come up and they'll giggle.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Then they're six.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm creating boobs.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: They come up, oh mummy, I love the colour on that one, and they're eight years old.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh mum, that one's cool.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been like, I'm not joking.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: So now, now they're friends because it was the same thing.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Their friends have all grown up around this, and now you know, I and I love them all, and they're all they all kids love art.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, because I've done some really cool things too, so it's not always been about the boobs, but now my son and my daughters will come in and go, Mum, that's amazing.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's they've never, there's probably been one giggle in 12 years because they've seen the art, and I'm so proud of that.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I actually hear you, and my house is full of art and it's full of of definitely boobs and lots of other, you know, because really it is it is art, and I think you're right.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you raise your kids with a sensibility that this is actually, if you normalize it as part of a story, it's not sort of it doesn't become, yeah, it's beautiful and it's to be honored, and that that is to your credit because your honouring of the female form, and I know you do lots of other things as well, but that is particularly quite beautiful, and it really makes, I think it makes other women feel good too.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: But obviously, your kids, they get it, they get it, and that's a credit to your your parenting and your mothering and your talent.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's so nice.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to thank you so much for joining me on the What I've Learned podcast.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's been an absolute treat, and I knew it would be.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's been amazing! I loved every second of it.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to come and visit your gallery and see what else you're creating.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait either.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Deb.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're such a beautiful woman, and you're doing this for all of us is just incredible.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute pleasure.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a beautiful journey with you.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ciao Bella.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ciao!
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Ciao.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: The What I've Learned podcast will now be coming to you weekly with new episodes released every Tuesday.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind, and curious.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Love dead.