THE SKETCHBOOKS
"A PRAGUE SKETCHBOOK"
Czechoslovakia, 1990
In Berlin, in the summer of 1990, Russell and I mentioned to Michael Jacobs that we’d like to see Prague and he said he had a good friend, a theater director, who lived there and could maybe put us up. He said he spoke a little German.
So we took a train south across the border into Czechoslovakia and met the real nice friend who in halting German said that, yes, he had a little guest apartment in an attic where we could stay and he made us feel very welcome.
Prague is a beautiful city, kind of dark and spooky. I loved it all and drew a lot.
In the museums, too, I saw a lot of great art and did some sketches. Prague is the birthplace of defenestration, throwing someone out of a high window as a means of execution.
On our last day in Prague, the nice theater director had us over to his house for dinner and to meet his family, a wife and three or four little kids. The Czech language, of course, was incomprehensible to us but we sat around and smiled and they were very nice. I noticed the kids had a cage with a little white mouse in it and they were feeding it some crackers and such. Well, I loved the little white mouse and at once took out my sketch pad and started drawing it. I did several quick sketches and gave one to each of the kids. Suddenly I was their best friend!
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