Moving mountains

I just picked up a great Einstein quote at a workshop today: “We are boxed in by the boundary conditions of our thinking”.  The workshop was delivered by a team from “MoveMountains”.

We did an exercise in creative art.  An artist gave us instructions, and in less than two hours we each created our own pastel landscape.  Great fun!  And, along with the rest of the material delivered, very instructive in what you can actually achieve – in spite of the usually negative opinion we often have of our own ability in some areas.

Before I learnt anything about these principles, I used to think that I was not very creative.  Both my mother and my sister were good artists.  My mother, at 93 years of age, is still painting the occasional oil landscape.  My sister Pam, who passed away in 2000 at 55, was a very gifted artist.  I never had any such gift!  Even though I had a very positive upbringing, I nevertheless took on the idea that – because I couldn’t paint or draw – I was not very creative. 

Some years later, I realised that this was a very limiting statement.  In fact, I now believe that I am very creative – but mostly in other areas.  I have played guitar for about 38 years, and have found many other creative outlets.  Even the photo at the top of this blog site shows some creativity!

However, I had not ever tried my hand at doing a landscape until today.  The result – while not a McCubbin or a Roberts – is at least acceptable.  More poignantly, it was in pastel – the last medium that Pam was using before she was no longer able to draw. 

While I am not about to embark on a career as a painter, it has been another liberating experience in breaking through a limiting belief.  I highly recommend it!