>> at the conclusion of the program mr. sis will purchase books and a gallery and he will cite other books also. please join me in welcoming one booked, what community, peter sis. [applause] >> thank you very much for coming. good evening. it was a long day. i was getting up in the morning at 5:00 on the sunnyside of washington and outside of new york. and it was in a cargo into the airport and people say

do i sense a little accent? [laughter] in the art they know that i am not from new york that out from a kitchen that it does not exist anymore. from texas a balky and he said how long have you been here? it and i said the country's six or seven years. and you still speak like that. [laughter] ninth eight tata i would do anything because if i came to this country and worked for the bank or if the public deli your supermarket maybe buy now when i do the

books i always look light galileo were a year or something and this alone and draw and time has moved again. i think what happens in my book i cannot quite express myself so once things are headed in the picture. of course, i would like people to open the book and find out for themselves what they see in the picture but we wanted the books to go out and promote the books and show people what you meant by each picture. but it would not be interesting enough if i just speaks so for be the solution is to show pictures because that is part of my life and the story of my book. but up by 12 show the power poured that have to push a button with one hand and

hold the microphone with others to sell it might create a confucian and in my brave especially if i have already been to high school because my kids have been too hh school but they don't tell me anything so i was the inside high-school and i saw how they talk and dress. and i am a little embarrassed by that that if i have to show the pictures they would dim the lights a little bit. [laughter] and so the picture that you see here, this is like the middle of the last century with the children in a high school i would say middle of the 20th century sometimes they the guy in a board in the 19th century so the capital of czechoslovakia and this is prog in the 1950's.

today is a colorful city because it is full of tourist but at that time it was very much greek and not very colorful. as a child you cannot control what country you are bored or political system your board into or situation so i was born just after the communist takeover of czechoslovakia. i will try to move the picture this is the family house it was taken just before 1989 maybe even september and this is what it looked like. very falling apart and but i with is trying to create in the picture. it was very bleak if you come to prague now this is the main street with a cafes

and shops said it is completely different. when i was a little child i would say this is how i like to draw up. people say you were talented as a child. not necessarily. no television or computer sell sometimes if they want a child to be quiet if they would give them a pencil. i don't think it happened like that but i needed to start a book so that is the reason. [laughter] i was surrounded by a living family by assuring a contrast to a public life and private life because both parents are artist and encouraged us to drop and reducing its with the situation has come to our mind because looking at the harmony at least as i remember.

my father was drafted in the army because he was a filmmaker he was sent to china because the chinese government and the time is country how to teach a documentary film sell i thought the 70 year-old man who went to china now he knows where china is a little is happening but at that time it was so far away it took many, many weeks and we all the new the chinese people eat with chopsticks and i thought he was gone for many years and as an adult wireless discovered he was only gone 19 months. this is the picture because he probably bar of a costume into bed to look to bed and

and he met the dali lama at 19 years old. in that way i lost great friends and supporters and 72 was making fun. that is a picture with my sister. away with it drew maps. that was one of my daughter. and i think my father said that was important because it directly told me when he came back to the world it was much bigger than i was told that's cool. this is when i was at school. this is when the problem started because we were exposed to the political defect and since today i am wondering how it 80 false help parents would not tell

us to talk about several things and start to make sense because it was not first grader second grader third grade and all of the propaganda they got home and said this is what everybody should do. this is a picture of all of the influences from walking in the street and a mix of propaganda. not only stolid and 11 and khrushchev but the pilot it coming through moscow with no license. because they take the people from germany and east germany everybody has the same reference to the things here he exposed omnibus in the same way.

and dealing with the the things that happen in the world that are not exactly in the same order of time. the most important was the hungarian uprising and the cuban missile crisis that came up much later. president kennedy was involved and then the assassination in dallas. it is interesting because i did not know something coming that we found out we were both hiding under the tables with the fear of the nuclear war because it was the solution at that time the students would be hiding under the table would solve anything. i think i did not like what was happening prague. not very friendly. it was dark. not as much fun greg up so

with everything in our house , i was afraid my father with the fund a big trip but then i found in the use old shares for people who wanted to be my friend and this is a famous circus artist and a player. at that time nobody knew i would become an artist in my life. let's face it as an old person i could say, this chair was not quite dry when my son came to visit. [laughter] and then you would see my paintings through the door. [laughter] and said it was not appreciated at all.

this is that i have been this six and reduce it to do go all the time. i did not do bill anymore now they would doodle on facebook. [laughter] in all of these pictures of people but i did not understand the concept it would be something wrong with the government telling me you cannot go from this place to that place because it was part of our life and nobody question that. >> i wanted to be a painter with paintings. i wanted to be a rock-and-roll musician. this is 1968 and it is also the best time of my life because all of a sudden we could go and travel and hitchhiked all over europe and we started to play rough

music and they all came together at the same time and we thought it would be reasonable and going through belgium to england and arguing with the british army officer and said know they cannot do it because what with the whole world say about it? there was the big joke with the russians came and of course, i was in london when the russian army came and it took 342 months but in my book i took the liberty too not explain it because it would become too difficult. when the russian planes came i would have to spend another 15 years or something to figure out. i was chosen by an amazing

illustrator and filmmaker to pick to me as a student. so with the politics and the russians coming and it is my two best friends is appearing in the whole world, they always think he picked me as a student i have to stay and go to school. he was so excited and he stayed -- died in 1969. i graduated from the school of fine arts in prague. i was trying to make a living as an artist with some posters. now i a much older than those in the high school because i had to explain the film posters and of the record. [laughter] who was president clinton and? [laughter] i was relieved that year i don't need to. this is for the young people

because that was asked to design the costume and that was such an arrogant young artist that with this story by designed the costumes and all the later i found out they hated me because it is very difficult to skate in this. [laughter] which i did not care. but now i would think about. [laughter] and there are more like that. that was not very considered of me. i am now admitting to my children it was a mistake be he being foolishly and they also led to the fact of became the most popular, czechoslovakia but this was just after 68 then of course, it was banned. and i had problems with the music that i played or what did i say.

my fully dedicated myself to the arts. and with the professional assignments in 1970 the russians came in the communist regime again became dictating empower fall and i was out to make record covers a no i don't have to explain and the recordover was by the singer who was very suspicious to the government and i just cannot with one design and it was canceled then they came up with the design of a little airport with a little house. when i brought its into the recording company, that guy said did you ever check which direction it blows

from? this is not funny it is very important because each artist is responsible for what he is doing. my lesson when he called the ministry of interior and culture and he said you are lucky. the wind is blowing in the right direction. [laughter] is the fact i am right-handed everything is going that way if i was left-handed it would have gone the other way. i started to do animation but there were also questions a little more difficult for the artist everybody was responsible for cents a ring himself sold in the fifties when they think you are responsible for what you're doing so i am covering that when people are asked to

come into the office when they ask them for people who are involved in the 68 and also a lot of artists were invited and asked to sign the petition they agree the russians are coming to prague. so the majority of people signed it because it was the nature of the people at that time. because then i would be a hero. these are the diaries and the dreams of people who were always talking about somebody who escaped to the west. it was a space you could not enter because fences and someboy

who'd of the tunnel and who got on the trade or had a hang glider and flew over. i was glad when i found out in a disney publication to little kids and was so brave and he collected old raincoats that he knew he could make a balloon and somehow he inflated them and he was a famous bicycle list so he was carrying his bicycle and just barely missed the wires and that was the desire to get to austria or west germany. this is a picture and it shows just what is happening inside people's heads and

with the berlin film festival at that time and as for me it is like levying for the west i have the picture of the men flying and i remember was an amazing experience because i went to west berlin i remember nablus dictation there was a soldier with a machine gun. but the corruption in prague if i wanted to get a passport the woman said are you going to west berlin? can you give me a yellow umbrella that you cannot get in eastern europe? then the second woman said i have little yorkie terrier i cannot find this scissors. so i was going to berlin for monday on the festival i was close to find a yellow umbrella and a scissors which would be hard and

anyplace. [laughter] i did find a blood missed seeing my film so i go back to prague i open it is paper and they said i won the gold but i was not even there to win it. but it was one of the good things. because all of a sudden everybody knew we in innovation and i was invited to make films in london and switzerland and the animation film director but the people and prague could add travel and at -- at all and those who could not go back i had a pass for and i could fly and i was confused because i would see in london tomatoes then i would go to prague and sa can i have a pound of tomatoes and nobody would have those in april. it was creating problems and i remember coming to the bar

in is iraq is like the wild west for somebody said i am buying drinks for everybody not just that guy over there. you may be? yes, i mean you why you call me that? because you have a czechoslovakia passport. i said i am an artist. >> you serve the government over there. i did not know what to say. i said let's step outside because that is what they say in the movies. [laughter] and a guy was very big and he was a dentist waiting for citizenship and he was afraid that if he stepped outside he would get in trouble and would not get citizenship. and some people said he is not bad but i am just saying it was creating more and more problems.

but i am still responsible for my family but this film i was invited into los angeles in 1982 to make a film for the of the big games in 1984 the company making the film also made the first video clips for a new channel of television and called and tv. in desoto there was seven minutes of animation and others as to make this film for bob dylan. mtv and it was fantastic because i love music and bob dylan mtv nobody knew if it would be successful. who cares? i started to do the animation and that is when everything came together. i was in hollywood, they had

white suits and swimming pools but it was nice to be invited. and everything was okay for two months but what people don't understand who are born free in a totalitarian country, they give you permission to ask for a be set and only for a certain period of time. if you do not come back in that time you are in trouble and a passport would be taken away or if you came very late you could end up in prison. and since you were a doughboy a it was said indoctrination only the bad people leave their country toward gore across the border. it was amazing and there were east german and bad germans and you have a feeling a nightmare you would do something you were

not supposed to do and leave and if you had permission to go for two weeks or in three weeks it would be a disaster. but i met some of the people who came from kansas city through york and i feel i have not been there for 12 years and they don't feel guilty at all. [laughter] plant that is what they pounded in your head and i know i am overstaying my permission become the taxes to make the fell. but then i go back and explain it because i was gone long enough that i started to think in a constructive way. i finished the film and i was not there but the fact they said they did not like the film. i thought oh my god i have nothing to show for it if i have to accomplish something

before i go back otherwise there will be no excuse. so now i am still trying to accomplish after seven years. [laughter] everybody in america is polite and cheerful but we will let you know, it and then they said he is not going home. i was not invited as much and i really did not know what to do with myself. i remember one day i met and she was collecting paintings and said i wonder if we could pay for that. i paid for them and tried to blow up the inside of the stereo. [laughter] and i started to do it

without it. she was the head of the municipal art gallery. i did not understand i was there for free and people pay for this school and i was supposed to be nice to them so they would keep paying. but was prepared to sacrifice everything and i thought they would have to stay up all night in they said this is california why should we stay up all night? we can do that in the daytime. i a understand that now. i've lost my teaching job. a friend said sent this to

maurice sendak. the things that we talk about today are based on my misunderstanding and i have no intention to go into children's books he called me collect i really did not want to be in children's books. but you are in the best place in america it is tinseltown but i haven't been any other place. you have to come to the east coast. i had to monday but i was lucky because one boy that i knew was finishing a movie and he asked me to make a poster. by boston old car i was so excited i was going to the east coast i thought it must be on the other side. [laughter] i drove and i got to san antonio, texas and thought i should turn left.

[laughter] i am lucky it was the old days it was a state trooper and i said which way to york? [laughter] he made me take everything out of the car. but now other people would be dead. [laughter] sino which way? now i said i will find it myself. i could not get in because it did not understand the concept of bridges and tunnels. this is a picture from the book is choosing between good things and bad things. with the decisions made make and life it is a symbol of freedom for me but from prague and eastern europe the people get upset the way i drew it but this is like

western europe so everything is good here and i am just saying it was not my intention but it is geographical and spiritual. this is how my life changed i was not really interested in making children's books by that i would do o one book were to book but then i sell 2 million books i thought i would make the animated film at a bit but then i have to pay for the apartment and somebody said you could do children's illustration sell its 9884 i was at "the new york times" and they gave me my first assignment which changed my life because they gave me to pictures and they gave them three options for each picture. i can do it in one line which would take 10 minutes

or half an hour but everybody was doing that i wanted to make sure i've is doing something that nobody else was doing so i would get work all the time. i needed work because rent was $900 per month they pay did -- i needed six pictures per month. i would do it with thousands of little dots. nobody else than that and they took the bait and from then on i was getting pictures almost every day but if you make dozens of dozens little dots it took three days you can do it in half an hour. i had no social life because i was making dots and eventually i became shaky. [laughter] and you are the little man that makes dots. for a long time i was making over 1,000 illustrations

native hundreds of little dots. i just finished a book and what i did 20 years ago i would spend all night making the dots i tried to recreate the dots three months ago and i immediately had to go to the doctor because of my muscles, it is impossible. you can only do during a certain period of your life especially with no social life. but they lead to a colorful pictures and other editorials and a started to do children's books. this is my friends book in america nobody liked my idea. they said they were too far out but i started to the street for other people with those little dots then i was lucky because the second or third book nablus remembering this and through

that two butthroh school site ao suspected at that time and i admit done in a cover of the book the moon or son to surround that looks like a metal, and i have been talking about it too much. people know it now. and is say no. [laughter] finally i could do my own book going back to rich in the new country i was sitting in this studio talking about myself with this loan the creature

living in a strange country looking for a spiritual friend this is the observation and finally i see this beautiful woman waving at me and finally somebody i know. it was somebody trying to stop a taxi. [laughter] it is about people different people waving and all the elevators because where i grew up there were not many elevators at all. dedicated to my sister because she will not be able to travel again but just before 1989. also with these books growing up beachball the architects designing and washington in the children's

area, and now they change the whole airport because they don't have the children's area so this is the food court. so even if there is increase our ketchup coming off. [laughter] she reminds me you have beautiful ceramic tiles. congratulations. [applause] this is 19809. this is the demonstration that have been in november and there was a moment when it looked like the police could kill people but they did not kill people and it starts to unfold. this is the moment. i took my wife who was my girlfriend and it said prague is very quiet in the fall and we can walk through

the old town. then we walked up this tree and receive these people joaquin with suitcases and teddy bears it looks like it was from a movie than it comes to the part people come from the bushes than they were people from east germany tried to get to the west german embassy and then there is a special train that went to west germany that also unfolded. i remember because i grew up in this brainwashed childhood and east germans asked if i can show the zero west german but i do not know what is going on. will the police come? i have my new american passport but in a communist system. i am with 10 or 20 germans

than 50. and they think we go in for some time. what do you do? then i hear my wife who grew up in a free country say i am a filmmaker in new york. do not tell them the truth. in the german embassy one says thank you for taking the to freedom but i said you seek to have something for free? you will have to work for it. i have not seen him since. i was ready to go back to prague but it was funny most of my friends from high school the kn ministers and for the first time, i do want to be ambassador to ghana? and it through the evening

in the end was to be a director of the chemical sector that i have a lot of friends who were involved in all of this very few people stayed in the politics really her carded a poster for 1990 and i thought before i the guy would do the book which would show somehow my gratitude to america i will try to a book about marco polo but it is silly i did not know expected would happen because the idea of christopher columbus and

what was around a europe and wanted to hold back can discover what was beyond the wall. immediately after that to superstition and freedom i did a book about something. have a two do with identity and freedom. some o. [inaudible] it is a true story. the whale and really goes into the pacific ocean into leaves the other gray whales. how does she know what they look like? the whole book is a visual joke about how to figure out who she is looking at the submarine.

then i have to change it because i got married with my wife. [laughter] but the slides remind me what has happened in my life. it has been so long saying if sy would tell her. then we went to indonesia for the honeymoon. and what they're being told and there is a little boy in the book who likes dry again said he believes the tsai a cavuto dragon and a voice said it was the best vacation he ever had. after that, and also the cold siberia and alaska

nobody else believe he insisted that he made up his stories be he was a fantastic man. he made the snowflakes in my voice in behalf to go. and that is how my life has changed to. [laughter] and not working in the high school today. [laughter] they say so what? but i have to say again this is not my first job i could not find a picture of a first child of this is to tell you life is changed but this is the second child she is now 17 so she looks completely different anywhere. [laughter] and sort of misunderstood so i cannot go back to prague my wife is american and i have a baby and i thought i

heard the name before she works for a couple-- six when a reader and what would you say? no. we don't say that. i was pretending to i did not know who she was in we had a relationship she would say i lived in washington i would say really? but i knew she then did rushing 10? i have two kids. >> you do not look like you have two kids. [laughter] but she gave me a chance when i was trying to do a book about prague and she went as a guest and said why did you do a book about prog? -- prague because i made myself look mysterious and could i need somebody as a guide and the book and a

seat belt black cats and i was expected people come to buy the book and hundreds of people and it is amazing how many people love cats even if you do dogs. dogs can be big. a i remember a woman in boston who bought books for her eight cats. [laughter] some do not have books but you are not going to argue of course, of laugh but going back and doing things. my hero but i completely copied it for the buck. he was like then got of the fall buy he does not get to upset.

and my version of it of it is nothing like that sell it is just to whet your appetite. and she died when month before the article k mount so i of been tired of my life and somebody wrote down and out in los angeles and gave me a chance to do this book i get a phone call and i think it is a practical joke and they asked me if i would paint the first lady and president of the united states. i painted a large, not just to what to paint but it could be so do not tread on

me and also i thought it would help it but there were not interested because they don't have the straw hats. [laughter] and the only been in washington on easter money i was afraid that this is a giant big eight to. as soon as he saw that he said it is beautiful. that was a mighty big trick and, wasn't it? no of course, my daughter is 17 so this is many years ago. of course, she did not know. she was confused with the white house and she took that day and dropped it. but again it you know, who this president is because i was not quite sure so it is

the same child you have seen before. [laughter] but just to show the family. is about galileo but the picture i had on my mind was galileo but is supposed to denounce what he had written about and for me not as much as against the show of power. why did books for my daughter i had to negotiate to change my name it with called motherland that it was too close to matter line but the publisher said it

had to be something else bright asked my daughter if she had permission to change her name but i had to say was about david to grow just like you because she would take permission away anytime she wanted ice-cream before dinner. it was a time of hope and wanted to see people with eight on the same block and of course, my son who lives across the street from the fire station was upset i made a book for her so i made a book for him how he loved fire trucks so much. [laughter] and throughout the apartment and help and he smelled something. but then of course, she wanted a dog.

this is the best time of my life. then she wants another dog but then it is just the joy of playing -- being a child. >> [laughter] i was a hero there really could not walk far away and then they were making these books for them they have their own ideas. then they were still in prague nablus on my way back with 1997 already i decided because diagnosed with cancer we have to do a story with so a lot of personal feelings with his

diary been meeting with the dali lama and the chinese general because four or five years he tries to make peace and the people in my book rebuilding the road collapsed and my father is gave did he wrote to for the customs but he could not see any more. it is very time-consuming. >> and looking for the relationship for my father. it was a personal book about him. then i was asked to have this big exhibition of the right team school and

completely by a coincidence the dali lama came so then able to present the book but they signed it to the is still a very nice book but then with the white scarf she gave to my father in 1950. it came to a full circle because i was a little boy. i saw these prints from the fairy tale. each of us and the picture of the buck. this is a picture next to my kids school and a fire station which the book was dedicated to and these fire men who are playing with my son parish. but then i did not know if it made sense to be in the book in a more if i should talk about pleasant things

but all of these are dedicated to 9/11. then i did the illustration for walt whitman. and then this was part of metropolitan transportation. they have these big long frames and they asked me to make up poster before 9/11. it was so long it would not fit so i had this and i placed the landscape of manhattan. somehow the poster came up just after 9/11 it was train number one, two, four and sentimental it was for how people felt and not provoke seeing anything but it was a message to say it is an amazing feeling without

being explicit or anything. silk case is still to say i don't have to say macarthur or the will. people say you did the will. and because of that with the metropolitan end transitory eight -- transportation authority they have hundreds of artists and each one is doing a creation for each station. i was very lucky because the people that did the mosaic mosaic, it was like a design. i design everything outside and i did not know anything about budgeting. they have a theory that if you have color furrow

art -- colorful art people would feel better but i did it on lexington but originally because it would cost too much i had to move all of the callers inside of the i. how did he come up with this idea? it is because of the budget. this is did music and like many musicians playing different music but because of the budget i have six musicians. [laughter] but that is okay because i covered most of the continent's. but i don't think we have time to go into this but i just want to say, this like the lael and our wind are connected to the world because these are people who dared to think different

things than the usual stop at that time. it was not always easy. and if you're the illustrator it is not a computer but if you do everything by hand, i did draw with our way with the legend of the species i was finished and watched television and it was english and he did everything with his left hand. i said if they do research on bbc or something so i went to the computer. i put in the dark wind left hand and i said that is it. he was left-handed. i took the eraser and the race to the pencil out of his right hand and put it into his left hand. then i moved up 10 in all three pictures and then the book is about to go to print and i knew there would be a lot of questions so they say

how do know he is left-handed? it came out on the paper on the computer and the television but then after 50 papers maybe only two papers he was left-handed. my wife starts to call and it was an english actor but done in seattle. and he said. i did not notice that the actor was left-handed. >> they thought i could be but like that because nobody would know. [laughter] but i thought if you are a child today you would say we knew he was left-handed. so i started to lift the pencil but by this time and the paper was getting so thin. [laughter] because not to be in the middle of the road because i

could not draw anything anymore because you could see through the paper. so he is writing this species with no 10. [laughter] but now on computer really change that in no time. this is just a long time ago she is very friendly and smiling. [laughter] in this is in holland with children from all over the world now david beckham from new york you have a whole new youtube video. then it led to trade of states and this is different

states and in this as a book about what will be an inspiration for buying new book that is about from people all over the world living together. it is all dedicated to the picture of the brain throwing away the identity card in the czech republic but you can see she is not very friendly. [laughter] and this is the of pictures you see people who could not read and write in letters to people they're not supposed to write. and standing in line but it a situation like that sometimes you do not see it

because it is a picture of everyday life. so little pictures of my children to explain what to grow up with and it what it made me. it is a symbol of prague from the first picture with their red flags and then the activity happening under ground and in secret. somebody asked me it is not fair because -- but i needed something that was easy to draw. but then originally the idea was all of the innocent people but that was not so simple. this is all going through the book with many, many

changes in a tribute to rock and roll and they all have their own and even their own sunglasses which melted in the sun. it was such a because long but every dayd allow 667 would be a group of young people who have long hair they would catch them and cut their hair then there were identity cards but you never had time to grow your hair for the identity cards who