A stargazer’s life
Jože Slak was a universal resident of this and other worlds that transcend our being and dwelling. He was an all-round artist, painter, sculptor, creator of art installations and visual art, as well as musician and composer. He was curious and inquisitive. Slak was also interested in several fields of science. He was a passenger on planet Earth and an avid stargazer. The unknown excited him and encouraged him to explore the medium of art in new ways. He created new works in many different branches, and they were original precisely because of his exploratory nature. Slak wanted his artworks to be controlled by the ubiquitous forces that shape everything we see. It was his wish to create works of art that would depend as much as possible on nature – on the substances and energies that give rise to everything visible and invisible.
Jože Slak lived a perfect life, that’s what I realised when I first met him. He lived in a perfect house. Perfect because it was his world of creativity and existence. He loved nature, and he looked after it well. Around his home in Dolenjska, he created a world where water and earth were in harmony and equilibrium. This was the place where he retreated when he stepped out of his inner being: to nature, to all the inhabitants of planet Earth.
His artworks are very harmonious, though anything but ordinary. This is true of both his artistic and musical works.
Slak was interested in sound, how to create it, how to change it, how to hear it in different spaces, how to hear the sound of each beat on the tabla or the bamia drum with different hand positions.

The world will only survive with people like Jože Slak,
in the light, which turns
the night into day
and the day into night,
on its cushion
we dream of landscapes in colours,
yellow, red, blue,
with a horizon
that separates and unites,
the shadow in the water,
which floats with its truth in the skies,
in the mirror,
which retains the memory
of the stargazer’s life.
Miloš Bašin

Đoka
Đoka conducted research and experiments in various fields. Even before he started studying chemistry, which he did not finish, he knew what his field of research as a chemist would be: complex salts of heavy metals with distinctive colours. Such compounds can be patented, for instance the blue colour developed by Yves Klein. He was also interested in spectral colours, such as the colours of the rainbow in soap bubbles or oil on water, and special colours that appear when heating sheet metal. Đoka studied reflection and refraction of light by various surfaces, including ribbed plexiglass. Among his well-known works of art are small pictures, where the final image changes when they are turned around and seen from a different angle. In much the same way, the colours and the dimensions of brush strokes in his plexiglass paintings also change under alternative viewpoints.
Dušan Krnel, Portorož, 5 March 2023

Jože Slak-Đoka was born on 12 March 1951 in Jablan near Mirna Peč in Slovenia. In 1975 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana under Prof. Garbijel Stupica. Between 1985 and 1987 he pursued postgraduate studies at the Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku in Kyoto. He lived in Ljubljana and in Jordankal.

His grandmother taught him how to make paper flowers and wreaths, pick medicinal plants, and cook. He worked the land and grew his own food.
He was fascinated by chemistry (he was a chemistry teacher’s assistant and studied chemistry at university for a few years).
He taught art in elementary school for a year. For several months, he worked as a carpenter in the US.
He studied painting in Japan for a year and a half, learning also to speak Japanese.
He was an astronomer. He made his own telescope, including the lens. He designed unique, one-off pieces of furniture. In his later years, he made wooden bows. He built and furnished his carpentry workshop himself.
He wrote texts for his exhibitions and catalogues. During his final two years, he studied neuroscience.
He released four CDs with the music group SAETA, including one in collaboration with Tinkara Kovač, playing the tabla and percussion.
He did aikido.