The Mønster Pattern Story could be told all the way from the beginning, from the origin of creation: the Big Bang…?
…but I will spare your time and start it all off in the Winter of 2015/2016. It was then I spent my Christmas holidays with (at that time) complete strangers in the Moroccan Merzouga desert at a retreat for social innovators. There was a lot of sand, a lot of sky, a lot of good food and a lot of free time, as we had no internet, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no stimulants whatsoever – just magnificent scenery and a community of people.
It so happened that there in the desert I embarked on my first conscious journey into the depths of my own unconscious.
Textmarker Maze
What had I been doing with my life up until that point in time – and with whom? And where? And why? – Whilst in situ on the dunes and gazing at the Sun sinking into the sand beyond the horizon, French poems being recited in the background (what a welcome change to attending random social events whilst sipping on wine and whatnot, no?), I scribbled into my sketchbook – as I do so often. Baba, our meditation master, came up to me and asked me what I was drawing. I felt irritated by his question and merely answered: “Nothing”, and smiled – as so often I do. He responded by remarking that my studio in Berlin must be a magical place – where I spent my time doing nothing, yet creating nevertheless.
This made me think.
What was it that I was spending my life doing – earning my money with – and why wasn’t it my art in the first place? As it is not only what I do best, but what I pursue with the greatest pleasure and joy, where I find stillness and inner peace.
Checkered Notes
It required a lot of self-reflection, of listening to my inner voice, many discussions with friends, breakups and new relationships formed, countless podcasts listened to whilst idiotically painting walls, ceilings, floors and furniture around me, for at some point in August/September 2016 Mønster to enter my mind. I felt haunted by my art and had come to realise that these daemons, these monsters, were in actual fact my patterns – hidden away in innumerable sketchbooks, notepads and folders.
That’s when… the penny dropped. My inner tribe had been labelled, conventionalised. And what a coincidence it turned out to be that Mønster is in fact the Danish noun for pattern. The signs were clear: Make a plan! And from then on I did. I designed a plan. – A business plan.
I needed money and time for the realisation of Mønster. And the universe handed me gracefully both and I took both gratefully. ?
Monster CI Colours
Wireframe Sketch, March 2017
Here I am, months later, in the now. Whilst building this website I felt as if I were building a vessel, a ship. A ship that henceforth would carry me to distant lands, islands unknown, and never before seen exotic places, with my cargo consisting solely of my patterns, which I endeavour to deliver to all the world, just as the merchant sailors of old did before me, when they traced the oceans and wrote the history of the ancient textiles trade and culture.
I feel that pattern heritage coursing through my veins, passed on through generations and millions of lives gone before, all the way from the furthest reaches of the Far East towards the ever-setting Sun in the pacific West. It is this genesis, this primordial original energy that I inject into my patterns and with which I discover and experience infinity.
And this Mønster journey has only just begun…
?♀️
The Team Desert, Merzouga / Morocco – Winter 2015 / ’16