Artist Statement

Petr Š. Lenda

Coming to California from Alaska I was affected by the everlasting green, the summery colors and the frolic of “mother nature”.  I like the impact that it has on people that are enjoying the outdoors as hikers, bikers and most importantly as farmers and gardeners.  This impact and the joy of nature, I like to show in my art.  I like to sculpt, draw, and paint people smiling and playing, living for the moment’s pleasure, not knowing words like ”worry” or “ bad luck”.  I create dancing and singing creatures at their leisure.  They speak to me, wink an eye at me, eventually take me inside their world; continuing my work, I dance, sing, and play with them.

A work of art has to live.  This means the artwork is speaking, conversing, and creating emotions.  A painting, drawing, or sculpture may be a dead piece of paper, canvas, of wood, clay, or other material, may be nice and cute – a decent craftsman’s work.  But an artist has to do more! He or she certainly has to know his craft.  Often good craftsmanship is the beginning of the artist’s work, but in the course of time that is not enough.  An artist has to have it.  That may be his gift, wisdom, or know-how given to him by God or nature enabling him to vitalize his work, imparting the it, inserting life into dead material.  With the imparted it, all art will talk to you, converse, and be understood.  It may force you to return to the artwork once or many more times, perhaps just for a short chat or long conversation or a deep thought about life.

This is a short version of my artist's statement that I wrote more than fifteen years ago.  At that time I had to interrupt the life of a working artist and had to put my energy into "making a living".  I still did some artwork during that time, but it was not enough to participate in professional exhibitions or showing in galleries.  A few years ago I retired from my engineering carrier and I am back in my life as an artist.  My technical and creative skills are recovered and I created a substantial body of work to the point that I am able to show my work and I trust it will be recognized and enjoyed as it was before.