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I TEACH THE TOOLS OF
IN SCHOOLS AND WORKSHOPS.
I also do individual coaching sessions where I guide people out of stuckness.
I work with the inner critic, the inner child and whatever psychological or practical barriers that stand between people and their longing to express themselves.
“Sofia is committed, and she inspired the participants a lot during her workshop days with us. The response was very positive, and the class felt they got in touch with their own creativity on a deeper and broader level after her classes.”
👆 Said by Alaya Vindelman, graphic design teacher at Fridhems folkhögskola, where I was a creativity guest teacher during the fall of 2022.
MY STORY
I've been working as a freelancing illustrator and graphic designer since 2010, and I run my own tattoo shop in Malmö since last year: Den Heliga Gralen (The Holy Grail).
I studied graphic design at Forsbergs School and Nyckelviksskolan in Stockholm, as well as a number of positive psychology courses in various universities. I also worked as an illustration and InDesign teacher at Folkuniversitetet in Malmö.
While being an illustration teacher, I heard many of my students tell the story of how they had lost the creative spark in their teenage years, and hadn't been able to draw since then. They believed that they weren’t good enough, that it was too late now, and that they weren’t allowed to make any mistakes.
In my profession as a creative, I had experienced blockages during many years myself, as I struggled to combine the joy to create with the monetizing of my art. Because of my struggles, I quit being an artist several times, only to experience how inspiration would come back like a Phoenix from the ashes after I'd stopped the pushing and expectations. This made me curious, so I started analyzing what I had actually done to cause my creativity to come back, as well as what I had done previously to block it.
There are many cultural beliefs around what creativity ”is” and how we should behave as creatives that don’t help but rather harm the creative flow. Most of the things that hold people back creatively are stuff that we have in common but don’t talk about, like self-criticism, perfectionism and fear of failure.
These days, I have found a way to be an artist in a broader, more sustainable and more playful way, which is a constant balancing act. I feel excited about exploring how creativity works, and to guide others in finding their own creative power.
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
How come so many people struggle with it?
How come so many people long to express themselves (through writing, painting, music and a thousand other ways), but are scared to do so?
What are the factors holding people back?
And what could happen if we kindly but surely took away the blocks – what would come forward, and how would that make us feel?
Is the point of creativity to live your life more fully, or is it (like our culture says) to make it a career, making money off of it and to be perfect at it?
There are SO many pitfalls in the land of creativity, and I’ve fallen in all of them numerous times. That’s why I know the terrain real well by now, and that's why I'm not afraid of it anymore. (I'm not afraid of the pitfalls, that is. I'm still shit scared of many things, like starting a podcast or going to Portugal.) Because I've been there myself, I like to take people by the hand and lead them through the knee-deep backwaters of Creativity Land when they are lost in doubt and self-criticism.
I’ve seen that the blocks people have are shared ones, and often imposed upon us by our stressful capitalist culture. Creativity requires a balance of yin and yang qualities to flourish, but we are all trained in yang: goal oriented, pushy, perfect, always strong, always on. Creativity (and life) withers in that climate.
Here is what I have learned to do and not to do in order for my creativity to flourish 👇
