08 Feb Interview BOLD journey
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sophie-Elizabeth Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sophie-Elizabeth below.
Sophie-Elizabeth, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
This comes with practice. It didn’t come naturally at all.
We always have this idea that somebody else can achieve something and we can’t. But where does that come from? Why is that? I always wanted to be a sculptor, but didn’t realize that it was possible for me, that it was only available to someone else, someone ¨special”.
This was where the confidence and self-esteem were missing initially.
I believe that when we are young and as we grow we learn how to feel and how to respond to our environment from those around us, our parents, teachers, peers, society etc.
We learn and take on beliefs about any given situation including about ourselves and with time, these become our assumed truth. Many assumed truths we hold are very limiting to our growth, these are our limiting paradigms, our limiting beliefs about ourselves.
Something very important that I only learned later on in adult life, is that as humans we actually have a choice as to how to think about any given topic. And most importantly that we have the ability to question everything. We don’t have to ever settle.
A tough lesson to learn is that everything, how we think, how we respond, how we act and our results in how we create our life is actually our responsibility. Nobody is coming to save us until we help ourselves.
There is so much help available these days on line or in books and personal coaches and courses and I choose to question everything, to study how our mind works, how we function as thinking, spiritual humans and how I can improve my thinking, responses and behaviour in every situation. And it literally changed my life.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My creative life is my absolute passion and with it how I can inspire others to live the life of their dreams, to become the best version of themselves.
I worked my way up from art classes at school, foundation course and art college. Then without realizing that it was possible for me to become the artist that I had always dreamed of, I worked by day in offices as a personal assistant or as a legal secretary and later as a plasterer. But I never lost my determination to succeed and always had a studio space where I would work from at night.
Today, I continue to grow and work as a full-time artist from my studio in Barcelona. With my office experience, I was able to form a company and now have assistants to help with the running of the company as well as the physical aspects of sculpture creation, enabling me to work on many projects at the same time.
I work in clay, but the majority of my work I now create by carving from blocks of plaster and then create often large scale pieces in stone, bronze, steel, glass and resin.
I work directly with interior designers, architects and landscape designers helping them by creating site specific sometimes monumental sculptures for many public locations, hospitality projects and private clients world wide.
The ongoing theme of my work is an exploration of consciousness and connection, our perception of reality and of our perceived separateness.
When I’m in my studio, during my creative process, there is a moment, sometimes after only minutes of working and sometimes after hours of working, where I suddenly feel completely at peace, where time appears to stand still in absolute tranquility. That sense of harmony that can only exist in the stillness and perfection of the present moment. This is the gap between thoughts, the moment that transcends time and space and our perceived reality where the purest of form and mark are created. It is an instinctive process where no thoughts can penetrate and the subconscious mind allows inspiration to flow into form.
It is in this present moment where all of my art works are created through an automatic, instinctive process of artistic investigative movement through my hands. All of my previous experiences, all that I have previously seen and known influence what I create with my hands in these moments as I allow my subconscious mind to flow without conscious thought.
We perceive the present moment as still, but on the quantum level, everything is energy, everything vibrates, nothing is still, nothing rests. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. All the energy that ever was and ever will be is present at all times.
Art is a language, sculpture a visual form of communication that can’t be formed in words, but created by the artist in those present moments of connection. As a result it is impossible for a sculpture to not change the feeling of a space or how a space is seen and felt whether someone is aware of it or not.
The energy held within a piece of art created by the artist has to be felt on a subconscious level by anyone who comes in contact with it and resonates with it.
I believe that art is so relevant to our culture, to our consciousness. A strong piece of art work can become a part of a greater collective consciousness. The iconic works of art belong to everyone and can take on a universal quality that can communicate to everyone on some level.
“To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders” Chuang Tzu, Tao
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. “Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds” Gautama Buddha Number one for me has to be the study of our awareness and self image. Whether this be in the form of self help with books and courses on-line, or a personal coach. To really question how we think about any situation and change our perception where it’s not serving us. Only by really following our passion and doing what we love really well can we be in a position to help and inspire others.
2. Get as much work experience as possible. In the beginning do a lot of different jobs to learn from different situations. I did a lot of temporary office work and labouring work and had no idea at the time just how important all of it would be for running my business now.
3. Know what you love and do what you love to do. If you want it badly enough, you will find away. Study someone who is already doing what you want to be doing and do what they do. And really study and practice the skills needed for what you want to do. Later on once you are up and running you will be able to delegate and get more help. To start with it will be up to you. Nobody is coming to save you and you are capable. We all are.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Bob Proctor. (1934-2022) Renowned speaker and success coach
I went to see him for week long intensive course and was lucky enough to spend some time with him.
His teachings for me were crucial in my development, namely his belief that everything is possible and that we become what we think about.
I studied and still do study everything he taught and followed everything he said to do and bit by bit by changing my beliefs, my reality began to change around me.
“If you can hold it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sophie-elizabeth-thompson.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sophie_elizabeth_thompson
Matthew Bates DOP