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It is beautiful in general when people have the courage to listen to their hearts and make changes in their lives that are getting them closer to their destiny. It is almost a miracle when a 26 years old man decides to drop on numbers and picks up the painter’s brush in order to share the path towards his own inner discovery.

Ian Liška was born in Guatemala in 1983 from a Czech father and Guatemalan mother with Spanish forefathers. Three years ago after his studies, he moved to Europe. A top university graduate of chemistry, he decided to quit this professional orientation and listen to his heart. Inspired by his eldest sister Ana Liška who is a well-known painter in Guatemala, Ian started to paint as well. His first exhibition, symbolically called Metamorphosis, took place in Prague a year ago. The second, One Step beyond the Senses, was achieved one month ago in Casa Latina, a Prague 3 lounge bar focused on providing goods and art from Latin America. On September 9, 2010, Liška will launch his third exhibition in the five-star Boscolo Carlo IV hotel in Prague 1. Symbolic and profound, he melts colors and words into powerful messages. A citizen of the world coming back to his roots, the young painter is already preparing a fourth exhibition to be launched in June 2011 in Písek, the birth town of his father.

Q: What is the content of your exhibition that is about to open in Carlo IV?

A: The name of the exhibition is Tuning with Nature. I’m inspired by the elements of fire, water, air and earth and how they combine to form everything around us. In my paintings, I want to portray the message that humans are a part of the nature and they’re connected to the world and to each other. We’re all one living organism that affects itself. In my work, I send a general message that life comes out of people’s minds – the thoughts mould the world in a direct form through actions and feelings that accumulate, combine with each other and form what surrounds us today.

Q: What are your sources of inspiration?

A: It’s my life experience. Three years ago, I was inspired to have a big life change. At that time, I was in a world focused more on science. The numbers that surrounded me were not enough to portray my feelings, so I had to find something else. Life pushed me in the world of art. My eldest sister influenced me because she’s a painter and I’ve been watching her painting and having exhibitions since I was a child. She advised me to start with the acrylics I’m still using till today. My first exhibition was called Metamorphosis, a symbolic name for the changes I was going through. That’s the source of my inspiration – portraying my ideas.

Q: When did your first exhibition take place?

A: Last year in June.

Q: So, you’ve celebrated a year from your artistic launch already…

A: Yes, and it’s a really nice coincidence that my second exhibition [in Casa Latina] was also in June. Then, I have a very important exhibition next year in June as well in Písek [South Bohemia], in the birth town of my father. I’m looking forward to it and I’m already preparing it in mind and spirit because it’s a really big milestone for me.

Q: Do you have a mentor who’s leading you in your artistic development?

A: It’s a complicated thing because I have a different approach. I want to keep painting as a tool of expression of my soul, my spirit and thoughts. I want to keep [that tool] as pure as possible. I want to let myself learn from my experience with this method of expressing myself and I don’t want to get external influence into something that it very personal. My mentors are mostly the people I speak with or examples of the things I see. It can be anything – it can be the nature that surrounds me because I see many beautiful shapes and contrasts. The nature has many wonderful colors that I always get inspired by. Whatever surrounds me can be my mentor – the people I speak with, the thoughts those people bring into my life – that is a considerable source of inspiration and energy.

Q: Are there any symbols that keep coming back in your art ?  

A: Yes. It’s very easy to see the female forms expressed in a lot of my paintings. I have a big family and a big part of it is strong women. I am influenced by this image of strong women in my life and that is easily perceived in my paintings. There are strong women rising from the ground, strong women dancing – the female form is something that you can see everywhere.

Q: What does a strong woman mean to you?

A: A woman who knows herself, who is confident and has an inner voice stronger than the external influences. That’s a woman who knows herself and knows what she wants.

Q: How do you as a man cope with that type of feminine power?

A: I really admire it and I welcome strong women into my life. They are inspiration to me and I hope to have more strong women around me in the future. They’re shaping the world because they are mothers, they are wives and it’s true that behind every great man there is a great woman. I am happy to see examples of that in my everyday life.

Q: An important part of your paintings is the written message attached to them that is somehow explaining them to the public. In some cases, the power of your painting is several times enhanced by your words. How did you come up with the idea of offering your paintings together with their written expression?

A: At the same time when I started painting, I also started writing my thoughts. After a little bit of doing this, I started to think I’d write a book. My paintings and my book are going hand in hand. Sometimes, the book describes the painting I’m painting at the moment. I think the painting and the message behind the painting are equally important – they’re part of a package that helps me express myself twice as strong, because [the message] is expressed by words that are powerful by themselves and they’re inspired by colors and shapes that communicate directly to the people without words. I have a direct communication through colors and shapes to the spirit and then I try to combine it with my words.

Q: In general, artists have a very strong connection to their masterpieces. How do you feel when one of your paintings is finding an owner? 

A: It’s an honor, on the one hand. On the other hand, since a painting inspires more paintings, I try to absorb it before I say good bye. I watch it a lot and I try to get inspired before saying good bye to it. Then, when I do say good bye, I just welcome something new because I know that if I get attached to my old work, then I can’t create new original pieces. I have to let go and just try to absorb the most of what I can from my previous work and when it finds an owner, I say good bye proudly. There is an important part about being a painter and that’s sharing. That’s the end part of the process – if someone is taking it, that’s what is meant for: to share. So, I’m happy for it.

Q: What was the feedback you received after your first two exhibitions?

A: People like my paintings. This is what gives me energy for more. It’s building on itself and gives me more energy to paint. That’s what I like – it’s a constructive process that feeds itself. People who see my paintings give me the energy to keep going. That started with my first painting because I started to paint with one painting I needed to paint for myself. When people saw it, liked it and asked if I could do more, I started doing more and then I had the first exhibition and people welcomed my paintings and wrote beautiful things in my guest book and they inspired me for more. Painting changed me as a person, changed my views on many things and gave me a brand new world. So, painting changed me more than I can think of anything else.

Q: What will be the topic of your exhibition in Písek next year?

A: That’s a year in advance. I’m still not sure, but it will be something tied to my roots. My father is from Písek and I want to portray family and roots and this feeling of coming back home. I would like to portray these feelings of family and home in this exhibition in the Písek Museum. I hope I’ll manage it, but I still have a lot to paint, so it’s enough time.

Q: Where do you belong? Do you feel a Czech citizen already?

A: It’s a very sensitive question. When I’m in Guatemala, I don’t look like I’m Guatemalan, and here in the Czech Republic I don’t look like a Czech. Sometimes people ask where I am from and I don’t have to say anything. Sometimes I speak Czech and people listen to my accent and ask where I am from. In Guatemala it’s the same thing – I don’t look like a Guatemalan, so people are immediately asking where I am from. I think I’m a citizen of the world. I feel welcomed in both places. When I’m in Guatemala, I feel like home and when I’m in the Czech Republic, I feel the same thing. Both countries have so many positive aspects that are a perfect combination for me because I have the best of the two worlds.

Q: How do you see your development in the future?

A: I see myself painting and I see myself free – free to choose and to move and to settle wherever I want. I don’t see myself static in one place, I want to see myself free to choose and I see myself doing this from Prague. I want to build a base here in Prague.

Online art lovers can admire Ian’s work at http://www.ianliska.com/index.htm#img/ian-liska-carlo8.jpg

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