Sleepless nights

Welcome to the world of daydreaming and nightmares, yawning and stretching, night owls and early birds, sleepyheads and insomniacs!
Welcome to the Sleepless nights!

I guess it all started when SHEEEP appeared at my doorstep. I fell in love with her at first sight. Later on, I decided to travel in Italy alone for the first time. Well, not completely alone. Sheeep was my personal guardian angel. She stood by my side even when I studied in Italy, in Forli, a little town located near Bologna.

I would lie if I said that my Erasmus was Erasmus with capital E. It was not. I am afraid it was a bit boring and if I hadn’t travelled by myself, I would have died of boredom and pasta al dente.

During the second month, I decided to take Sheeep for an exciting trip in Umbria and Marche. In Ancona, I was hosted in a unique ecosystem called Casa Canalini (House of Canalini), which was a flat occupied by five crazy university students. I was impressed. Everything there had its own story. Everything was colourful. And the mess was incredible!

My flat in Forli was a complete opposite - brand-new, clean and white. Bed, walls, wardrobe, windows, table, coat hanger, trash bin, everything was unbearably white, like in a hospital. Or laboratory. I needed to bring colours in there. I wanted to have my own Casa Canalini where everything has its own story. What helped was that I was DESPERATELY SLEEPLESS.

Insomnia was nothing new though. I have suffered from insomnia since I was 20 – I would wake up at 2am but wouldn’t fall asleep again no matter what. Which is definitely useful if you are a busy person because you gain some extra hours. Day by day, I became addicted to this biorhythm. I had time to do anything - read a book; write a book; watch a movie; watch several (hundred) episodes of anime; study (just joking, I did that only once); bake a bread (not joking); bake Christmas sweets; make homemade muesli; have a night snack; have an early morning snack; have breakfast; peel chestnuts; crack walnuts; wrap up X-mas presents; tidy my room up; tidy the kitchen up (after peeling the chestnuts); cuddle our cat; … etc.

I was sleepless every single day when I was in Italy. However, the range of activities I could do was limited since I had two flatmates and even more neighbours. I couldn’t use a blender in the middle of the night in order to prepare gingerbread and I definitely couldn’t crack walnuts. I couldn’t watch movies since our internet connection was limited. I couldn’t waste my time on facebook, fancy that! The range of activities shrank to eating and reading.

Before leaving for Italy, I packed old crayons from my schoolyears in the luggage for some reason (something like: "Uhm, alright, maybe they will come handy one day.") So one night I tore a blank page from a leaflet that I had taken in Perugia and started drawing "Friendship without limits". I stuck the drawing on the white wall, ignoring the owner’s warning that sticking anything anywhere was not allowed. In no time, I covered all the walls with my drawings. I didn’t buy a single piece of paper, everything was recycled.

I realized quite soon that I had nothing to draw on. The only usable carton that I found (in our trash bin) was an empty box from Barilla pasta (P.S. This is not a product placement :-D). And it turned out to be the best material for drawing ever! Since then I impatiently waited for my flatmates to finish a box of pasta and forced them to buy exclusively Barilla brand. Jacopo, who was able to eat one box a day, soon became my beloved friend. Therefore, this collection is highly ecological. I only use carton from empty boxes, such as Barilla pasta, sanitary napkins, cocoa, muesli, instant porridge, chocolate, henna powder, tea, cous cous…

After finishing Erasmus, I travelled with my Sheeep in southern Italy and kept drawing. I didn’t stop when I was back in the Czech Republic. Drawing became my passion and till now I have made more than 300 drawings.

I hope that you will like this amateur gallery and that it will bring some colours in your life. :-)