Keeping a Diary

I haven't always found the time to keep a daily diary, but almost always when I go on holiday or on a short break, I try and keep a diary or sketch book, or both, as well as taking photographs.  Painting on holiday is sometimes possible too depending on the location and I've also been known to do the odd collage!

Having recently been re-visiting my sketchbooks and note books from my visit to Prague 10 years ago, I came across this collage, which also brought back the memory of our walking tour of the city.

Our guide, a beautiful statuesque Czech girl named Hannah, arrived at our hotel and announced, "Today you will walk for 7 hours!".  And, in spite of the number of aged folks in our party, that is exactly what we did.  It was certainly a wonderful tour of Prague, but in the heat and with cobbled streets to negotiate, very tiring.  When we reached the castle in the afternoon, my mother, then aged 76, asked if she could sit down for a minute, but was told "If you do so, you will miss something", so on we went.  

The following day, we decided to opt out of another guided walk, chosing instead to visit other parts of the city at our own pace and found interesting old antique shops and bookshops, where we purchased some old sheet music for about 5p each. I think it is music for accordion, which may come in handy one day!     These beautiful little sheets look great framed up and I copied the one above to make into a collage incorporating newsprint cut into small sections a la Jiri Kolar! (See previous blog). 

Jiri Kolar - Czech Artist 1914-2002

I made an amazing discovery when I visited Prague in 2002, just after the devastating floods.  The small gallery called The House of the Golden Ring in the centre of Prague houses a wonderful art collection, and it was here that I first saw an amazing collage by the aptly named Jiri Kolar.  The picture which stays in my memory, but which I have never been able to find a photo of, was the silhouette of a beautiful woman, completely collaged with old black and white photographs.  I did a quick sketch - just an outline really, and some time later recreated my own version, using my own children's silhouettes and filling them in with scraps from magazines that they chose themselves!   Since then I have found books about Jiri Kolar, and have now learned that he was also a poet and writer as well as a talented artist.  One of the books about him, Jiri Kolar: Transformations contains images of the many types of collage he created and named. These include Chiasmage, Confrontage, Crumplage, Intercollage, Rollage and Prollage and so on - many variations on a theme.
 Various internet sites have information and images of Kolar's work but museums in Prague are somewhat difficult to navigate and I still can't find an image of my lady's silhouette - will have to return there sometime!

Shortly after my return I started my Fine Art degree at the University of Gloucestershire and during that year I decided to make some work referencing this artist, not very well known here.  I was lucky to find some books in a second hand bookshop near Tate Modern, and online research filled in the gaps!