Find one difference!

And now kids!

A building, where this exhibition was installed was a three story former granary, each floor a vast space, all of them packed from the ceiling to the floor with kids' drawings, paintings, ceramics. Art hobby schools had their show there and the feeling when you see their work in such an amount is just hard to describe. I had some errands nearby and we happened to visit this one rather by coincidence, we were lucky.



These are only few crumbs that caught our eye. At the same time, I can't wait for the time when my son is little bigger and we can draw together. (I really enjoyed it with my nieces, before I had Dominik, doodle like a crazy, with no special intention).

Anyway, at the exhibition, it is interesting to watch how those 13, 14 years olds proudly hang there their (almost) realistic works while we, the audience, is interested in the opposite. Struggle for realistic depiction that didn't happened. How cute!



The exhibition took place here.

KALEVALA / for my Finnish readers

Iroi

Kalevala narrated to children, Vladislav Stanovský, illustrations by Stanislav Kolíbal, graphic design by Oldřich Hlavsa, published in Praha 1962.

Lemminkäinen

It's mostly illustrations that intrigue me in this book, but the graphic design itself makes the book a precious piece as well. Stanislav Kolíbal, yet quite a well known sculptor in this country, was quite experimental with these drawings for that time, nothing like that seen here before. The book he had illustrated earlier (Strom pohádek / The Fairy Tale Tree, Praha 1957) was even more progressive, his pictures were composed of cut-outs and some found it offensive. See a page from his catalogue:

I like how the illustrations for Kalevala correspond with his sculptures, the way their surfaces are structured.

Anyway, the book, since it is narrated to children, is written as a prose, not like the original Kalevala, only some parts rhymes, they are on a brown paper of different size in the book and they make its design special.

I haven't read it so far, but I have known something about it, since I have learned about painting of Akselli Gallen-Kallela. So, what does this magic grinder Sampo represent in the poem? What are the theories? (I heard one daring one that it is actually a magic mushroom, amanita muscaria, but I doubt it..)


And here we have a paper collage by Kolíbal as a bonus to those who scrolled all the way to here:

Book covers

Both cover designs by Zbyněk Sekal, Faulkner published in 1963 and Styron in 1962.

Purely typograhic Zbyněk Sekal, published in 1963.

Cover by Miloslav Fulín, published in 1965. I liked the way he played with letters in the name of the writer: Mrožek. As the title says: Mrožek or Mrožek, there is a sence in having them look different each time.


Miloslav Fulín, published in 1967. I don't know much about this designer, he seems to be more a typoghrapher than a painter. He belonged to the most renown ones at the time, won some awards etc. The last book (Paradisso interrotto, anthology of the Italian poetry), unlike the preceding ones, is nicely done inside as well. The drawing on the cover is actually by Concetto Pozzati from 1965, repeated inside of the book as well.

Cardigan and my husband

My grandmother sheared sheep, spun the wool and kept the yarn unused for many years. It was some thirty, forty years ago. Then my mum knitted this cardigan from it and my dad used to wear it - twenty years ago. I stole it from him later and now my husband is posing in it for this blog, pretending he is a professional model (he does have modeling in his blood!).

Technical note, since the pictures aren't clear: Each skein of the yarn was little different shade of white and it made a nice effect in the knit.

Doodles

The first one was meant as designs for bags with pockets on front, as one could say just from looking. I was fond of Mark Rothko at that time, I think. I made one bag finally, the one with a violet pocket, but it's gone to eternal fields already.
The other one comes from the time when I was more into batik and cloth design thing. It certainly took some inspiration from abstract painting as well but who knows what it was, anyway, it's not so important. These stayed on the paper, I didn't use them.