Letnany Shopping Center (or) Fragile Christmas Decorations of Childhood Memories in the Middle of Shopping Fever

VArtist Marie Brozova's memoir of her public drawing event in the Letnany Shopping Center, Prague.

All people know since early childhood that they can use colored pencils for drawing drawings. In the time before Christmas I decided to extend a little bit the use of colored pencils and create a drawing with them that can help somebody. And because it is very helpful to help someone who has been helpful I chose Helping Paws,an organization that trains assistant dogs for handicapped people.

An uninformed person like me is absolutely amazed to see the presentation of assistance dogs’ abilities. It looks like miracle, I’m not exaggerating. Would you think, that a dog can be able to take the laundry out of the washing machine?

The best conditions for this charitable form of my project The Defense of Colored Pencils was inspired in Letnany Shopping Center, where I had decided to draw a drawing titled "The Christmas Tree in Children’s eyes", then sell it by auction and donate the benefit to Helping Paws.

My friends predicted that I would surely be killed in the pre-Christmas shopping crush. I conjured up an island of my mysterious childhood memories of Christmas that I used to spend in the old Prague quarter Zizkov, where the lit-up Christmas tree chased away the darkness consuming our living room. Only the spooky shades of furniture were detectable. I could easily recollect every little detail from this time of miracles and wonders, charming glass decorations, the scent of sparklers, my childish desire to spot a golden pig on the ceiling (according to the Czech tradition, you can spot a golden pig when you are strong-willed enough to starve the whole Christmas day until the dinner), enthusiasm over the pile of neatly wrapped presents under the Christmas tree and all the colored lights of the numerous Christmas trees in the windows of the opposite houses.

It was so easy to catch the sound of of the angels’ wings fluttering and jingling the bells on the small Jesus’ sleigh that must have come all the way from Bethlehem to our hallway. Equally easily I could draw it all, it was natural, and my colored pencils built a bridge between past and present, regardless of all that commercial craziness surrounding me.

And something miraculous happened. I was not trampled by the crowd, people stopped as if they were awakened from a bad dream. They stood and recalled the Christmases of their childhoods, some of reminiscing volubly, some wordlessly. I will always remember the startled face of a young man, who burst into tears suddenly, because he recognized a particular Christmas decoration in my drawing, he used to adore ages ago. He also recalled his red children’s stool, that had wheels and you could play with it as if it were a horse running through the prairie. He cried because he did not think of these little miracles for thirty years…

I was very pleased with children, especially the sort of children that are said to be interested only in violence. It depends on what we offer them. If we offered them beauty instead of violence, the void in their souls would be filled.