Artist Marie Brozova's recollections of the public drawing event in Kutna Hora.
"Gothic is woven of stone and wind", with this poetic sentence begins a legend about the ghost of the howling wind, who is always hungry and is ululating into chimneys. This colorful description brought me the idea for the third large drawing created in public in Kutna Hora. I did not expect it, but my bold determination to depict the wind at the St. Barbara Cathedral called the wind in full strength, "which is blowing into the sails, bending the slender mast of the cathedral ship, opening the flowers of gothic ornaments, ruffling the robes of the stone saints and tries to break the ribs in the vault of the cathedral", just like the legend describes. I had to fight with this wind; otherwise I would be easily blown away with my bucket of colored pencils. But regardless of that, I tried to portray his puffy face with scattered light blue freckles and navy blue curly hair with a birds nest that he took away with him while he was frightening the birds, angels and hippogriffs resting on the roof of the cathedral. I was not slapped in the face by him, like the unfortunate hero of the quoted legend by Rudolf Matys, but still I felt that he was testing my determination and persistence. Believe it or not, at the beginning of July I had to wear my winter clothes.
I felt the presence of this mysterious wind from the first day, looking over my shoulder. He took the advantage of the first moment of my carelessness, and whispered a malicious idea in the ear of a small girl, who grabbed one of my pencils and started to draw – where else than on the white surface of my paper. Before I had the chance to stop her, there was a rough circle in the middle of my drawing. I saw stars, because the colored pencils cannot be erased. But at the moment I realized that the little girl marked the very place, where I intended to draw the round head of the howling wind. As if I heard the wind laughing in the distance.
My traveling project Defense of Colored pencils rarely returns to the same place, but it felt like coming back home when we were invited to the St. Barbara Cathedral for the third time. From the first day I was visited by many people I remembered from the last two years, some of them even postponed their holidays because they wanted to meet me and see my new works. Such words make you feel warm even in the cold wind that is driving tears in your eyes. Probably the most frequent visitor and my die-hard fan in Kutna Hora was an elderly cyclist, it was hard to believe that he had just celebrated his 75th birthday. Oh I wish I was in such a good shape. He told me a beautiful geologic fairy tale about the Mesozoic era sea that had covered the whole region except from the hill Kank which used to be the only island in that area. Thanks to this ancient sea you can find numerous sea shells in the sandstone the cathedral is made of, but also see them sparkling in the sun all over the baroque statues decorating the Jesuit College.
St. Barbara Cathedral has been under a large reconstruction for a few years, which brings a new toy for the playful wind – the scaffolding. He can roar with the metal construction, make terrible noise, frighten the workers and restorers, who unlike the angels and hippogriffs, lack wings. I observed the workers changing the roofing material, replacing the old slate tiles. The new material looked very artificial. I confided to the cyclist – geologist with my worries, but he reassured me, that it is slate, not plastic, indeed. But these days the slate tiles are manufactured mechanically. The old slate tiles were made by human hand and that is what made them look so irregular. But in my drawing I pictured the old irregular slate, because there is a story hidden in each tile. These stories were told by my visitors, local people as well as the sightseers from all around the world. All these stories were referring to the same theme, newly discovered children's joy of life or the longing to follow the track of the child we once used to be, and pick up the threads at the moment, where the excitement of being alive had been spoiled by the negative experience or routine. This journey can be easily made with colored pencils in your hand.
I was very lucky to meet exceptionally talented people, who are trying their best to make the world more beautiful. For example Simona Koryntova is a young charming witch, who comes with her accomplished vision of "playful garden". You can make every garden playful, when you put in it her picturesque beings from her air-brush atelier. A Dutch sculptor Barbara Roling gives ceramics a new dimension by her detailed work, horns of plenty abundant in shape and color, as if she brought them directly from the Garden of Eden.
Thanks to the renowned restorer of musical instruments Tomas Krbilek I found that my cherished drawing easel was made of beech wood. I will not hear a word against my old easel that has been supporting me for all those long years of drawing in public. I love beech trees since my early childhood, I admire the changing colors during all seasons of the year, and I always felt these trees were watching me by their eyes in silvery bark. Tomas Krbilek also provided the first help to my easel, when the malicious wind knocked it down and dislocated a few joints in its spine. I had a chance to watch how wonderful it is when someone can talk to wood.
And as if the cold wind was not enough icy, we initiated a new ritual to go to the restaurant U hrncire /At the potter's/ for a fried ice cream. We were sitting in the garden with the wonderful view of the lonely tower of St. James church. In green shadows around us there were sweet-tooth cats crawling, hoping to wheedle some goodies from us. The sun was going down and the birds in the apple trees were singing their farewell. We could peep inside the world of quiet gardens among well known busy streets with the thousands of tourist marching by. When a journalist asked me, what would be my theme next year in Kutna Hora (nobody doubted that I would come back again next year in July), I expressed a wish to capture this atmosphere dominated by the St. James Church.
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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