Born and raised in the South of Brazil, in a “house in Porto Alegre”, Júlia Palazzo grew up scuba-diving with her renowned environmental activist father. José Truda Palazzo Jr. is best known for his successful campaign against Japanese whaling in Brazilian waters, a fight that was recognized by Brazil’s president back in 1985. Those childhood memories of underwater adventures with her father have stayed with Palazzo ever since, inspiring her art.Currently based in Melbourne, she lives in a tiny Richmond apartment with her professional and romantic partner, Chuck Mayfield, also an artist. Their apartment is an artist’s home from the first step in. On the right side of the door, there’s a dark brown bookshelf filled from top to bottom with a whole spectrum of paint, cased in singular tubes. On the left side of the door, there is another brown, smaller bookshelf filled with actual books, on all kinds of topics. The dull-grey carpeted floor is splattered with paint here and there. Next to the tiny kitchen, filled with stacks of clean dishes, is a square, brightly lit room, “that’s kind of my studio” she says with a soft exotic accent. A place where drawing, her “favourite thing in the world” is done…as well as the boring admin stuff.
When she turned 17, Palazzo moved to Australia, all by herself. Her reason? She wanted to be an artist. Although she was young, Palazzo knew that Brazil, with its “crime and social issues”, wasn’t the best place to chase her dreams.
Like many of us, Palazzo knew that, from a financial view, being an artist was not the safest career move. Instead, she studied “a degree in visual communication design” at the Queensland College of Art for four years, where she met Chuck Mayfield, whom she developed a close friendship with. The story of how the two became romantically involved, doesn’t read like a dreamy romantic novel. In fact, it’s one of the most normal things that could happen to two university students. One night, Palazzo “just got really drunk” and hooked up with Chuck. They say that age is just a number, and in this case, with Mayfield aged 36 and Palazzo aged 22, it seems to be true, as they’ve been together for “nearly three years now”.
When her studies at the Queensland College of Art came to an end, Júlia Palazzo moved to Melbourne with Chuck Mayfield. First, she tried her hand at interning at various design studios and realized that she was going to spend a “lot of years sitting in front of a computer, doing work that I wasn’t that interested in”. In her mind, she wanted to play the role of “creative director”. So she left, to “do my own thing” she shrugs.
Coming from Brazil, a place where “it’s a lot easier to fall into poverty”, Palazzo is naturally cautious, and hopes that one day, she can be completely fearless. During her first six months in Melbourne, before Palazzo and Mayfield really chased their artistic dreams, they both worked to create a financial safety net, with Palazzo becoming a bartender and Mayfield, a sign-writer.
“Macro Deity”, her first solo exhibition, was held earlier this year from the 6th -19th of February, at the Brunswick Street Gallery in Fitzroy. The exhibition featured paintings all about deep-sea creatures, and their beauty. Miriam Arbus, the curator of the Brunswick Street Gallery, said that she loved the “mystical…underwater or outer space” theme of Palazzo’s exhibition. Arbus’ favourite thing about working with Palazzo was her “extremely strong style [and] excellent approach to her work”, and the fact that from the very start, Arbus knew what she was in for.
The ocean has always been a big part of Palazzo’s life. When she lived in Brazil, her favourite pastime activity was scuba diving with her father, José Truda Palazzo Jr. “So much of what we see underwater is just amazing art…the colour and the shapes…there’s just so much beauty down there” says Palazzo, as her eyes widen with wonder. Even her collaborations have elements of the sea in them.
Mayfield Palace is an ongoing artistic collaboration between Palazzo and Mayfield. People all around Melbourne hire them to decorate their space, whether it be a backyard fence, a gym or a burger shop, they do it all. The two recently completed a mural inside the newly opened 1090 Burger shop in Richmond, which consisted of the whole inner wall being turned into a water pond, complete with giant lotus flowers and pastel coloured cod-like fish. Is there anything out of the water, that inspires her?
“I take a lot of inspiration out of business people” she laughs. “So many amazing stories of entrepreneurs that had some great ideas and they just went and did it”. However, her face becomes suddenly serious, “this is relevant to people in developed countries…I understand…being in a rich country we can have a distorted perception on how easy or hard it is”.
For Palazzo, constant self-improvement and pushing yourself to new levels, seems to be an important thing. “I struggle a lot just sitting still” she says, something that she’s trying to improve by practicing a “meditation course by Peter Russell”. However, she much prefers yoga, a “moving sort of meditation”. One of the other things that she’d like to improve is her self-promotion skills. “I should probably get my shit together and do more of that” she chuckles, wrinkling her nose.
Wondering what’s next from Júlia Palazzo? Well, along with Mayfield, she is completing a “series of murals around Melbourne, with a particular theme”, which will be slowly revealed as each mural is created across the city, one by one.
Zaya's Creations 