Beginnings

It's been a good week in the Space. People have looked in, come in, sat down, chatted watched me making stuff and wondered about coming back to make things/draw/paint with me. So it's beginning to catch on.

For me, this idea of a creative space goes back a while......

When I worked with World Horizons in the late 1990s, a space in North Dock (the UK base in Llanelli, South Wales) was cleared of junk and set aside specifically for creative activities and celebrations. It's known as the Creative Space and is still being used today. Last time I heard there was something going on for local youth called the Music Garden which sounds great. A massive jamming session where they can play, learn new instruments and be as loud as they like. Brilliant.

Here's the Creative Space when not in action:

And here's North Dock where the Creative Space resides in the green warehouse behind the building on the left:

Anyway, I remember painting a series of huge colourful banners for one of its first doo's and then another time, making loads of puppets and creatures with kids and doing a kind of carnival parade there.

So I like the idea of brightening up and beautifying unused or neglected spaces and bringing them to life.

And I like the idea, on a slightly different tack, of providing calm space in the middle of busy-ness and activity....

Back in 1999 I went up to a place on the West coast of Scotland to help a friend clear the grounds of an old Manse which her family had acquired on a peppercorn rent with permission to use it as a community-type place where people could come and work the land, pray, write, paint etc. Whilst my friend focused on the garden, I cleared out the rubble from an old chapel and swept it clean:

As I swept, I remember imagining the place becoming peopled and busy and the chapel being a place of calm and rest in the midst of it all. And I remember as well really enjoying the process of creating a space, even though that time I didn't get to see it come into its own.

So this Space under a cafe in the middle of Phnom Penh doesn't feel unfamiliar to me. It's been an ongoing prayer and way of being over the years which has found expression in various ways in the many places I've lived. No time to write about those now but just to say I am very happy to have a found a Space here to tend to and to offer to others to create and rest and be in too.