'The Creative Spaces in Between' - Being Consciously Creative in Everyday Life

CHAPTER 1: IT IS ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE

CHANGING YOUR MINDSET

Life is like a roller coaster ride. It naturally holds positive and negative experiences, joys and sorrows, laughter and tears. In a family you encounter an ongoing flow of births and deaths, weddings and divorces, ups and downs.

In your work place you can feel inspired or burned out; appreciated or ostracized. The physical and mental parameters can feel so limiting and constricting that a way out is way out of sight. Now and again when you find yourself in a situation where you are not thriving and your energy level is low, it is necessary to step back and look at your life – your job, your colleagues, your home, or your spouse – with a different perspective.

You have to face the problems and then change your mindset. It is all about making a conscious choice whether you want to be a victim in your own life, or you want to rise to the challenge and take responsibility for your own life and become a consciously creative human being.

In 1996 my family and I moved to the beautiful Danish Lakelands, also referred to as the heart of Denmark, in the vicinity of a small hill called Himmelbjerget or the Heaven Mountain. With a height of 482 ft, the hill is commonly celebrated as the highest point in Denmark, and from its top you have the most magnificent view of lakes and beautiful landscapes. This area has always attracted artists and other creatively inclined people, who in one way or the other have the surplus energy to wanting more or something extra in life.

We had bought a small house, one hundred years old and made of stones. The house was located in a tiny village in the old town of Rye, close to rolling hills clad in heather and grass, and situated between the church and town inn, which to us felt like a guarantee for balance between body and soul. It was a very small place. A lot of 6100 ft2 with a cute little house, a boiler room and a hen house.

Our tiny, little house in the Lakelands

In the mid-90s the housing market was quite different than what we see today. At that time you could not pick and choose between houses, because the supply of houses for sale was very limited, and often you had to make do with what you could get. It was common that people were queuing up for a house, and discussions about which house to pick were rare.

I had been involved in a work project in a near-by town, which meant that my family and I had to move closer. We also wanted to make the move in time for my son to start school. So when we learned that an open house was being held for two hours in the small village, we rushed to the address, because whoever made the first bid would most likely get the house. Fortune smiled upon us, and we were so lucky to get the opportunity to buy the small stone house on the tiny lot. Supposedly, all’s well that ends well.

But during the first winter living in the house, I felt absolutely miserable.

Previously our living quarters had included not only a large spacious house, but two miles away I also had access to another house which I used as a studio and where I could romp happily and play with plaster and cement, molding and modeling figures and sculptures.

But now we had ended up in the tiny little spot in the small village. The house was surrounded by a wilderness of untamed bushes and tall, dark trees which blocked out all sunlight. The energy that prevailed in the garden was so negative that it felt as if it slowly crept up on you and I practically felt physical discomfort when walking there.

How was I supposed to survive in these surroundings, where the physical boundaries were so limiting that there was no room for creative expression. Creative expression had otherwise always been the driving force and rejuvenating element in my life. Now, I had no studio and there were no possibilities to add on. I felt I could not breathe and that my opportunities for creative expression were limited.

Then I discovered what had hit me: I was trapped in an illusion of my own making of how a lot, a house, and a garden were “supposed” to look. Suddenly, I became very aware that in order for me to survive in this new environment, I would need to change my mindset.

So by changing my view on everything and by cracking open the old deep-rooted structures I had carried with me through the years, it was only then that I could create brand new spaces between myself and the situation I was in.

Often, when you end up in a situation that does not work for you, what is needed is for you to take a step back and ask yourself: “How can I change my attitude to the situation I am in, in order to be able to move forward and attain more energy and joie de vivre?”

I had caught myself on focusing on all the things I did not have and could not do.

Instead, what I needed to do was to fix my attention on all the things I actually did have and what I could do.

So I took one step back and with fresh eyes I tried to take a new look at the lot, the house and the garden.

Admittedly, it was a tiny house, but with some ingenuity and dexterity the boiler room and the hen house could be converted into a small but usable studio.

The hen house turned studio - now with a furnace and mosaic wall decorations

Close-up of another mosaic-decorated chimney in the house. The small inserted photo shows a larger portion of the chimney

On top of that I had the lot - 6100 ft2 of land that I suddenly envisioned as a gigantic canvas upon which I could release my pent-up creativity. So from that moment I started picturing the lot as a huge canvas, I simultaneously discovered the immense space and room I suddenly had at my disposal for creative maneuvering. There was hundreds of work hours lined up in front of me and the possibilities were endless. Possibilities, which I had been blind to during that first winter in our new home. And because I did not thrive, and because things just did not work, I had been forced to look at my life situation with different eyes.

Peering through my new “glasses”, I suddenly thought: “Wow, I am a lucky person; I have no less than 6100 ft2 of canvas!” So, for me the next logical step was to start “painting”.

To me painting was no longer limited to creative efforts on a fabric-clad frame in my studio. By changing old mindsets and structures I now faced a massive “garden-canvas” which I could begin “painting” with soil, plants, cement and tiles.

I started out exactly where the negative energy prevailed the most: In the darkest and most dank corner of the garden. I thinned the bushes, made room and let the light in. And then I started “painting” my canvas with mosaic. And every, single piece of tile which is used in a decoration, an ornament or on a sculpture is flipped and turned over countless times in order to be placed right, and in the process of setting the mosaic a lot of positive energy is injected to the project. All this good energy, which was transferred from me to the mosaic, reversed the energy in the garden – piece by piece. And slowly – with the generous help and acceptance from my neighbors - I succeeded in cutting down most of the shady trees so that the fresh air and sunlight could flow freely into the garden.

It took me nearly twelve years to finish painting my “canvas”, and in this process walls and floors inside the house were also drawn into the project and “exposed to” creative adornments. In the garden I created a large number of tiled sculptures in smaller groups. These areas in the garden represent a learning environment which I have on numerous occasions used for classes and courses in mosaic, creativity and personal development.

There is no doubt that you have also come up against feelings of limitations, hardship and crisis in your life. Places and situations where you do not thrive, nothing seems to work optimally, and you feel constrained or trapped. Your spouse may be depressed and sulky all the time, and you have an ardent wish to replace him or her.

Maybe you feel trapped in a job or a work area that no longer satisfies you, and deep down you long for a new position filled with excitement and challenges. Or thirdly, your physical settings can feel too restrictive, making you dream of moving to a better or different accommodation.

In situations like these one’s obvious choice could be to get a divorce and find a new partner; you could quit your old job and find a satisfactory one instead; or you could sell your house and move to a better one. But sometimes the surroundings, the circumstances you are in or even the times we live in can clip your wings: there is no new romantic partner or escapade in sight; the unemployment rates are daunting, making a career move difficult; or maybe the reigning financial crisis makes buying or selling a house impossible at the moment.

If the things you dream of doing and the goals you aspire to are out of your reach, what do you do then?

Try to take a step back. Try to change your attitude or your mindset and have a crack at looking at your situation with fresh eyes or from another angle.

Attempt to create some new spaces between the various elements of your situation. Try to focus on the positive side of your circumstances. What do you have in your life that actually works? What can you be grateful for? What elements can be adjusted into something useful, inspiring and positive instead of continuing to have a negative and limiting effect on you and your well-being?

In times of hardship and crisis you...