Jaroslav Róna

born: 27. 4. 1957
graduate: VŠUP Prague
address: Izraelská 1, 130 00 Prague 3
e-mail: jaroslav@jaroslav-rona.cz
http://www.jaroslav-rona.cz

Author also in 1995, 1996 and 2003.

Well, how was it all then? Well, I was sitting at Kapičák’s, sipping MOR-HO, when suddenly the mayor shows up like steam over a pressure cooker. He was timid for a while like a cold cook before a wedding and then he said: "Well, Jaroš, we have had a few glasses with the committee and thought for a while and Francek then said that we could name you an honorary citizen of Mikulov." I was dumbfounded like a priest at a peep show. All was whirling in my head as if they were drawing the LOTTO inside it. "Well, I have nothing against such honour," I say,“ but what would I have to do in return? I don’t remember being good at anything apart from lifting glasses in the wine cellar." "Well, Jaroš, we know that you are the same codger as we all are, but they said at the committee that we didn’t have an honorary citizen yet and that it would be a good idea to have one, now that we are in that UNESCO thing, well, and you have been plum brandy, so that you have some inspiration," he said and left for the wine cellar.
"Well, thanks a lot, uncle," I meditated and eye the flask. The flask had such a strange shape, it was all dented... I took a swig and suddenly I felt a bolt of inspiration like during a feast in Istanbul. What if I cut out this flask out of a wooden block? I started right away and in a week, and in a week, the flask was lying on logs in the chateau park like a real work of art.
I was praised at the committee, the mayor himself clapped me on the back: "You did not disappoint us, Jaróš," he said, "but one piece is not enough for honorary citizenship. You have to make another one and guess you’re out of the woods." I don't have to tell you that I had as many ideas in my head as there are vegetarians at a pig slaughtering. I decided to go down to the cellar to get the fine velvet pears I kept there for my special pear brandy, when suddenly I bumped into my boy, who was on his way to play at the stream with a wooden boat made by his grandpa. And as I bumped into him in the doorway, my pears fell on the boy and his boat. I was just about to tick him off but suddenly I saw those pears sitting in the boat, like some funny fat sailors. That's exactly what I need for my new piece, I slapped my thighs with satisfaction. The boy disappeared, all puzzled by what he has just seen. I took the axe and after a week, the cockleboat with pears was in the garden right next to the castle.
Well, it was some celebration when they put it there. My old lady was all twisting in her new ADYDAS outfit like some artist’s wife, and what do have to tell you, that’s what she was. They don‘t call me nothing but Jaróš the Artist in Mikulov anymore. Well, I haven’t received the honorary citizenship yet, because Francek said at the committee that I still have to learn to paint to be recognized in NEW YORK. Well, I guess I can manage that somehow as well.

Jaróš Rónovic
Prague near Mikulov, October 3, 1997

Diamonds
oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, 1997

A Memory from the War
oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, 1997

Mikulovské výtvarné sypozium 1997

July 18^th - Agust 23^th, 1997