Artist Marie Brozova recalls her public drawing event in Kutna Hora.
Kutna Hora is a city, where you can find a treasure of the deep and distant past hidden under every cobblestone, but in the tropic weather of July, when I returned with my project to Kutna Hora, I preferred to look at the angels above my head and my drawing became light as the summer breeze, full of angels moving in the air through the historic streets and people feeling so free they could almost fly. My husband and I never complain about hot weather, and since we love sunshine and summer heat, we felt very comfortable all ten days of the public drawing in front of the Chapel of Corpus Christi near the St. Barbara Cathedral.
Only once the outside exhibition was canceled by an unexpected storm with torrential rain. We managed to save the drawings, but we ended up drenched as drowned rats. In the end we found a hiding place on the stairs leading down to the chapel and watched in horror the waterfall of rain water coming down on us. But the downpour was only a short one and the sun dried up the wet street very quickly.
I was especially looking forward to meeting the Japanese tourists; we had a new attraction prepared for them – a hand rubber stamp with the logo of my project. As we expected, it became very successful; Japanese tourists were standing in long lines eagerly, trying to queue-jump like children to get the stamp on their postcards as quickly as possible. Three Malaysian girls were avid to hear many Czech legends and fairytales that became the inspirations for some of my drawings. One Hong Kong young lady with dyed orange hair was enthusiastic when I agreed to sign my name with three colored pencils in her travel journal full of beer coasters, colorful advertisements and tickets to castles and museums.
I was eventually spoken to by a businessman from Taiwan, who confided intimately, that people in Taiwan are very similar to Czech people. "Oh well, perhaps at first sight" I said to myself. "If you know what I mean," he continued. "With the economy growing, people desire spiritual experiences, they want more than a full stomach, they are longing for something beautiful and touching" and he touched his belly to emphasize his emotion (while a Czech man would touch his heart). But then he realized that I was taller than him, it made him nervous and he jumped up on the curb to overcome his handicap. He proved by this, that at least men in Taiwan are very similar to Czech men.
I tell funny stories about foreigners, but I was very glad that this time The Defense of Colored Pencils attracted many local people too, even though they are said to be stay-at-homes, especially in cultural matters. I could not say that. On the contrary, I experienced wonderful meetings. I really enjoyed a voluble coachman taking tourists for a ride in his carriage and pair. He always dropped his passengers at the cathedral and waited for them at my easel, admiring my work. He even persuaded me to put his horses into my drawing and when I really did it, he was very touched.
Almost every day I was visited by an elderly man riding a bicycle. He always brought me basketsful of stories from Kutna Hora history or his own past. "I was thinking about what to tell you to make you laugh," he said, and I learned , why the famous local pub is called The Comet – it has something to do with a disreputable house for private soldiers who lived in a former baroque Jesuit College, transformed into military quarters. In the Czech language, people used to call ladies of loose virtue "comets." This is information you never get from the serious travel or history books.
I was also very pleased about a small boy, named Peta, preparing for first grade in school. He repeatedly asked his granny to visit my exhibition in the chapel, no matter that he had seen it many times before. Fortunately, he lady was tolerant and was pleased to have such a sensitive grandson.
And at last I would like to mention a strange meeting just on the border of dream and reality. Like every evening, we went for a walk to the large park above the Vrchlice river to watch the sun set over the cathedral. And suddenly we met a very peculiar little man (very similar to the wise man in my drawing The Book of Life), riding the most peculiar velocipede in his loose clothes from the Salvation Army and with a small pixie-like hat on his head. "Hullo", he greeted us, with a toothless smile and we felt as if we met the guard of our fortune.
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.
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signed author prints ready for framing, postcards and more.