Snails Drawing

Art! A word that in our times can mean almost anything! For some time it means a solemn veneration of the archaic. That's exactly why many of our present colleagues don't paint "paintings," which they may occasionally exhibit and even sometimes sell - but instead they prepare "projects" or put on "action". In today's fast-paced, media-driven world they are afraid to produce mere "art". The very word "art" seems to mean something that cannot be undertaken for a living - cannot be business. But it's neither a fight for something or with something, in the sense that you will redress anything. We devote ourselves to art; we cultivate it in an attempt to fulfill our interior vision. It become part of our life; a compulsion. That's an error. For those who learn how to live with it, it's a long-term process, and if not udertaken faithfull, the result is painful. Those who do, we call "artists". In the development of art, people who knowsomething about art, or don't know anything about art, have tried to convince us there have been no qualitative changes during the entire course of human civilization. But don't be mistaken! The work of ancient Egyptian, Gothic, and Renesance masters, with their human fervor, and devotion, were more modern that some who were praised to the skies during the last century, and who claimed to be an avangard. Let us ask ourselves, what is the reason for such an interpretation? Often we are emphasizing the question of form. That is not the most important. Even if by what we call "form" we understand to mean painting craftsmanship, than form is an essential element of self realisation of the artist who is inflicted with the need to paint. Without craftsmanship, generally speaking, your soul and eyes can may feel it, but your hands cannot achieve it. With an absence of these skills we are often led to various camouflages, and dishonesty, and even conscious trickery. In such cases we are distant from art. I also hope by the previous text, it follows that art requires humility - humility before it, and from it. I fully agree with Vladimír Holan who wrote, "From the sketch to the work, you walk on your knees." And suffer anguish... Someone wise and knowledgeable once said, "Anguish of the buyer of art is needless, but anguish of the creator of art is needed, both personally and for the work itself". Enough of quotation. Ivana Svobodová is an artist. Everything written here in the truest sense applies to her work.