I’ve been painting since the days of totalitarianism. I started painting when I was at the Social Welfare Institute. I paint with Ottík at the Ateliér radostné tvorby (Studio of Joyful Art) and at Studio Barvolam. I still go to Gawain. And I used to paint at Duha. At Duha, the workshops were held in a block of flats. And I have been as far as London – I flew there on a plane. All the way to England! And instead of pigs from Košetice, there were teddy bears. I won a radio at an auction.

What is painting for me? Enjoyment. It helps me calm down. Sometimes I paint pines and conifers, like spruces. Not really spruces, but forests and landscapes that I make up myself. Sometimes I paint from photos, from books, from history books, or books about castles, from postcards, and dolls. I like dolls. Dolls are my children. I can’t have children.

We rehearse at the theater, sometimes on the weekend. I’ve been in My Diary and other plays, like Cabaret of the Sold-Out Actors and Eater of the Dead. Then I performed in The Gravedigger’s Bride. I was also in The Kings of Tramtarie. That was the Ujeto Theatre. Before that, I was in Inventory with the Ujeto Theatre.

I like it all! Sometimes I get tired, and I might even fall asleep in the middle of a performance. Štěpan and Ilonka, especially Ilonka, tell me not to sleep. And sometimes Ilonka makes me coffee to keep me awake.

Dáša Filípková, 2019