Milan Heger is a local artist from a far away place. Once suppressed under communist rule in Czechoslovakia, he has found the freedom to fulfill his passion. He shares his experience in a 90 percent autobiographical book titled, The Art of Freedom.

Locally, his book is on sale at independent bookstores such as Fremont Place Books and Greenwood’s Couth Buzzard Books, where he recently held a reading.

“It’s an inspirational book about overcoming obstacles,” Heger said.

“When you have a passion for something, you do it no matter what regime or what obstacle. Passion has to prevail.”

Heger’s personal obstacle was a communist regime. Born in 1958, Heger grew up in communist Czechoslovakia.

“When I was younger I dreamt about being free and being an artist,” he said. “But in communism, where I grew up, not just anybody was allowed to study fine art. Art was considered a dangerous tool. People educated in art could use it as counter propaganda.”

Heger said he was allowed to study architecture, which in European tradition is considered a mother of all art.

“I’m predominantly an artist. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be an architect,” he said.

Despite the educational restrictions on fine arts and creative thinking, Heger studied fine arts privately under the guidance of his uncle, Ernest Fischer.

“Heidiger said you can only become what you already are,” Heger said. “If you decided you are something in your mind and your heart then you’ve already accomplished it and you will become it by default.”

Heger came to the US in 1988, when he was 30 years old. He was invited to teach architecture and fine arts at the University of Hawaii. He started doing his art freely but his time in the US was limited. His family had to stay in Czechoslovakia as a sort of blackmail to ensure Heger would return to his country. Heger did and left his art in the care of art gallery owner, Patricia Cameron, who started showing his work.

When the wall came down, he was able to acquire the appropriate paper work to immigrate his family to the US.

“His stories were inspiring even before he put them on paper,” said Cameron, who has now represented Heger’s work for 22 years.

“The Art of Freedom is a phenomenal story.”

It took Heger four years to finish his book, stating that he “chiseled it like an art work.”

“I wanted it to have substance, a philosophical message and timeliness,” he said.

Heger said he wants the reader to analyze their own freedoms. “Freedom to travel, freedom to love to who love, freedom of speech, etc. There are layers and layers of freedoms that we can be stripped off,” Heger said. “A mortage on a house means you’re no longer free. I marriage freeing or limiting?”

Heger said he answers some of those questions in the book, others he lets the reader answer for themselves.

When asked if he is free, Heger said he’s well on his way to succeeding. “I feel so free in my art that’s it’s going better,” he said.

“The hardest obstacle to freedom wasn’t communism or labor camp,” Heger said. “It was freedom of self-censorship. To be free from demands and impositions from society. Finding a freedom from self-censorship is a huge thing.”

Cameron said she’s always impressed by how brave artists are for opening themselves up to be exposed.

“Heger really does bring his hide to the market,” she said. “I once told his stories to a group of tourists as I was showing his work and by the end of it they were in tears. They were so moved by it.”

“I remember watching the wall come down and thinking, I know someone who lives behind that. When I read his book, I’m there,” Cameron said.