Artist Marie Brozova's recollections of the public drawing event in Jicin, as a part of the festival Jicin – The Town of Fairy Tales.
It has been a long time since I regretted so bitterly that it is impossible to turn back time and became a small child again – but I was really sorry to be an adult during the beautiful Festival Jicin – the town of fairy tales. I know from my experience that many successful festivals get more and more commercial with each year, and change into cheap carnivals, partly pub and partly Vietnamese market. I was surprised to learn, that it was the16th year of the festival, and still I felt like stepping right into a fairy tale.
The main Jicin Valdstejn Square changed into a fair of creative workshops, welcoming children as well as adult visitors. My colored pencils workshop followed the public drawing of my humorous drawing, titled "Bandits in the Tree." You could see not only hidden bandits robbing one another in it, but also many mischievous cats guarding the stolen treasures and many pixies and jovial fairies all around.
There was Rumcajs, the legendary bandit from Czech childrens stories, walking around the place, and also the Water sprite, or the Grey lady and many other creatures from fairy tales. But the most prevalent were dwarfs, there were 950 dwarfs counted in the parade – and this unbelievable number was enough to make a record registered by Dobry Den Agency.
I was inspired by all those elfish beings going around me and I decided to participate in the workshop of fairy hats and in a short time I decorated a straw hat with rowanberries, rosehips, ivy and fallen leaves. And I must have been successful, because it caused a funny misunderstanding. I sat wearing my fairy hat and working on my drawing, and there was a crowd of people watching me as usual. A mother asked me about my technique, and when I looked back at her, her little daughter cried in horror: "Mom, but this fairy is real!"
In Jicin everything was fairy, the whole town changed into a dreamland. You could visit the fairy post-office and ask for a fairy stamp on your postcard, even the radio was fairy, hosted by two young girls asking the performers fairy questions. I was asked if we had any fairy beings or ghosts living at our place. For those who could not listen to their fairy broadcasting, I repeated that we have many good pixie-helpers living in our cottage, who are happy, when I’m making drawings and gather all around me and purr like cats.
But we also accommodate a mischievous ghost sock-eater, who lives by stealing our laundry. Sometimes we catch him in the act, when he is dragging one of our socks to some hiding place, where he can eat it in peace. But sadly we are not successful very often.
Hundreds of people came back every day to see the progress of my drawing. I was especially amused by a couple of adolescent boys, who were horsing around with a balloon filled with helium gas and they asked me questions in distorted voices. One of them made a wonderful remark: "Oh, if I could download your ability to draw from the internet."
I am looking forward to next September, because I was invited again for the following year of the festival. What do you think will be the main subject of the fairy festival next year?
I know it already, but you will have to wait.
VISIT MARIE BROZOVA’S VIRTUAL GALLERY
www.angels-fairies-unicorns.com,
where you’ll find both the drawings created during public events and in the studio.
NOW YOU CAN ORDER
signed author prints ready for framing, postcards and more.