The Change Artist brings Carla Rieger's powerful recipe for mastering self change into a compelling story format.
The story begins with the troubled relationship between an adult daughter and her dying father.
Carla Rieger has written a compelling story, inspired by true events in her own life.
After her father’s death, Carla Rieger found the journal she had once given him and discovered he had filled it with details about the secrets of his past.
This discovery became the catalyst for The Change Artist, a semi-autobiographical journey of discovery, in which Fran, the heroine, uncovers her father’s two hidden lives, discovers a sister that she never knew she had, and frantically searches for the truth.
Rieger has mastered the art of the page-turner; as the narratives of different characters intersect and diverge, the reader is compelled to find out what happens next. Written in a style influenced by Dan Millman and Dan Brown, The Change Artist is a mythic journey that blends fiction with truth, offering lessons in creativity, spirituality and history along the way.
The Change Artist is Rieger’s first novel and a winner of the Books & Authors 2009 Award for “Fiction Inspired by True Events.” It is also a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards and a finalist in the USA Book News Awards.
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Linda Naiman, founder of Creativity at Work, is known internationally for pioneering arts-based learning in organizations. Linda leads retreats, facilitates creative strategy meetings, speaks at business conferences, and conducts workshops on creativity and innovation in North America, Europe and Asia. She also coaches leaders, managers, and artists on finding creative solutions and achieving their goals.
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To get a copy of the book click here.
The Change Artist is told from the point of view of 3 characters at different times in history. Name actors who you think should play them plus the love interest and why. Our panel of judges will decide which entry has the best argument for all four. Winner receives 4 free copies of The Change Artist to give out as gifts. Send suggestions to carla@artistryofchange.com by November 30th, 2009.
1. The daughter (the present) – around 30 years old, Canadian woman, dark features, petite.
2. The father (1940’s) – around 20 years old, male with dark features, athletic build.
3. The grandmother (1930’s) – around 30 years old, Roma/Gypsy woman, dark features, petite.
4. Jasper, the love interest (the present) – mid 30’s, handsome, British musician with dark features.
Posted on September 21, 2009 by Carla in Uncategorized
The Change Artist is about moral dilemmas and a person who justified his actions (as many of us do) only to later regret those choices.
The father character chose to do some things as a young man to try to make amends and thought that those actions never made a difference his whole life, when actually they really did. The Change Artist is about the price we pay when we choose to act based on survival rather than on principles. It’s also about the price we pay when we label ourselves as a victim or a villain and never find forgiveness for ourselves or others. At its core it’s about the power of forgiveness.
Most people live their entire lives condemning themselves or others for past mistakes. This form of condemnation can be a self-made prison and will sap the joy out of life. Yet, why is forgiveness so difficult? So elusive? Because to forgive yourself is to truly take responsibility for what you’ve done and to learn from it, to grow from it. If you condemn yourself it’s a way of splitting yourself off, of distancing yourself from the human part that falls down and makes mistakes.
Similarly to condemn others is to distance yourself from the collective human shadow, to make yourself “better than”. This can create the illusion that you are somehow not responsible. This is a natural human tendency. To be responsible is to literally be “able to respond”. If we see people in the world choosing their response instead of letting their response choose them, then we see the beginning of growth, evolution and change for the human condition.
If it’s always someone else’s fault then there can be no learning or growth. Forgiveness takes the courage to look at yourself and at the world. It challenges you to choose your response, to choose to evolve and to choose to grow. The more people in the world taking back their ability to respond, the sooner we restore ourselves to wholeness.
Change leaders can become targets. Often the person who suggests a new idea gets shot down by people who are uncomfortable with change. There are plenty of examples throughout history of people who stood for change getting assassinated or vilified. It’s no wonder we keep our mouths shut.
There are inherent forces within nature to create, to stay the same for a while, then to destroy. It’s the cycle of life that also affects people. There are times in a person’s life (and times in history) when we need to release the old to make room for something new. This transition can trigger turmoil as the energy of one fights against the other, like two chemicals in a test tube. Finally, the two become one and a third entity emerges. The Phoenix rises from the ashes of the old. The new tree grows from the dead trunk of a mother tree.
If we keep our mouths shut when it’s clear a change is needed there can be negative consequences. Stifling your creative ideas, can undermine your own well being but also those you serve. Leading change comes with risks, but if that is your path then life tends to mysteriously show up to help. Choosing the path of a change artist requires you to have certain habits so that you can be as resilient as possible.
Here is Carla Rieger talking about The Change Artist, a novel about the perils of denying your creativity. It explores one woman’s path of reconnecting to her creative heritage and habits she needed to become a leader of change.
The top-down hierarchies of power throughout history are starting to break down with the advent of such things as the Internet that creates a more democratic process of contributing creatively to society. It used to be that only a few music producers chose what music we would all get to listen to, or a few art galleries which art we could see, or a few movie producers which movies to see, or a few publishing houses which books we could read.
But now, artists of all kinds can self produced and self distribute via technology and the Internet, which means no more middle man. The end user decides rather than one person at the top of the hierarchy. It’s a rare time in history. For most of history only a very few people in society got to be creative and they were usually offering that creativity in service of a patron who had a specific agenda. Now people all over the world can be making art for art’s sake and we get to enjoy a wide diversity of perspectives .
Yet,some people still live with the idea that being creative is dangerous. Indeed, creativity often threatens the existing status quo or structure. Movies open minds to new ideas. Books excite the imagination with new possibilities, new forms of dance help people embody a new way of being, and innovative business systems contribute to the evolution of society.
Here is Carla Rieger talking about her new novel, The Change Artist, on Studio 4. This story covers lesser known stories about World War II. It explores the dilemma many people face throughout history between being creative and maintaining the status quo. From present day Vancouver to Nazi Germany of the past, to the Sahara Desert and to a band of carnival entertainers.
“Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, ALWAYS.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Creativity and innovation without integrity is, by universal law, unsustainable. We see this throughout history with investors like Bernie Madoff, or companies like Enron, or political leaders like Hitler. They impress people at first with their “innovative” way of changing things for the better. But if the innovation isn’t based in integrity then it cannot be sustained and eventually the leaders self-destruct and those that follow them lose out.
The Change Artist within us all is the archetype of the dreamweaver. It’s the part of us that can re-program our virtual reality movie. However, have you noticed that it doesn’t always create a rosy picture of health, wealth and happiness? Sometimes The Change Artist attracts challenge, loss and hardship into your life. Maybe these are opportunities to grow, to learn how to live more in harmony with universal laws, to make ourselves right with the world again. You cannot learn about integrity unless you transgress it from time to time and most humans have done that in big ways or small at some time in their lives. Like a child learning how to walk, we take a step and fall, then get back up and try again.
The suspense novel, The Change Artist, was recently reviewed by Clare Swindlehurst in her Blue Archipelago book blog in the UK. The novel explores how three people in three different generations of the same family deal with change, creativity and integrity in their own lives. The story goes back and forth through time and spans from the early 1930’s to the 21st century, and is inspired by true events of those who have suffered great loss but then found their way back to creativity with integrity.
The Myth of Hades and Zeus is fascinating because it explores the light and shadow sides of the male archetype within society and the individual. According to Jungian theory, archetypes are, “Universal patterns from the collective unconscious”. They show up in stories, religions, mythologies, legends, and fairy tales.” They also show up in our dreams, visions, and day dreams.
The Greek myths of Hades and Zeus struck me as central to the characters of George, Jorg and Jiri in The Change Artist. Separate identities but also part of the same individual. In ancient Greek mythology Zeus was the God of the upper world and Hades was the God of the under world, they were brothers and sons of Poseidon.
Human instincts are one manifestation of an archetype. According to author, Jean Shinoda Bolen, the ancient Greeks used a deity to mirror every state and capacity, every mood, thought, act, and experience of the human being.
This story came into being when I found a box of hidden photos and documents after my father died suggesting that he had lived out other identities in his life. I had been a creativity and innovation catalyst working with the public and with organizations to help them be more creative especially in uncertain times. Bringing my father’s story to light in the context of what I teach seemed an interesting challenge.
Genealogical Research
I spent 10 years and did all kinds of genealogical research, hired researchers, went to Europe, wrote letters, made phone calls and tried to piece together the story. Some information was available, some wasn’t. On this journey I uncovered so many fascinating stories of that time in history I chose to weave several of them together into one epic story of interweaving characters, places and events.
What the book is about
Fran, a change-averse accountant, is overshadowed by her elderly father’s demanding and eccentric ways. Thinking she would be set free when he dies, Fran finds herself tangled in a web of betrayal and confusion. Her inheritance in jeopardy and her father’s true identity threatening her future, Fran must find an inner strength she never knew she had. From Vancouver to Vienna of today to the Sahara Desert and carnival entertainers of the past, Fran fights to uncover the truth both to save her father’s legacy and find the secrets that will unlock her soul. What she discovers will change her life forever.
Also you can buy the book on this website, read the blog, see discussion questions, read book reviews and check out sample chapters at http://www.thechangeartistbook.com/.
Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist of the 20th Century, often talked about stories as a form of medicine. People often ask why I wrote The Change Artist since it was such a huge amount of work to research, write and publish. I did it as a way to heal generational shame in my family and to help reconnect to my roots, and to inspire other people to do so. It had a profound healing on me and seems to have affected many readers in that way, too.
Also, the theme of the book is about being the source of your own creativity. I speak, consult and write about that, so I thought it would be more congruent to make the writing format as artistic as possible. I also have a strong background in myth, storytelling and Jungian archetypes and the power of story as a form of medicine. Those are the reasons I chose a novel format rather than a step-by-step, analytical textbook.
Non-fiction often brings up memories of school, college and cramming for finals for people. Whereas, stories are associated more with leisure, enjoyment, being able to relax the left brain and surrender to a more fulsome whole brain process.
People most attracted to my book are Boomer aged people who feel challenged by change and who want to expand their creativity as leaders, to find the courage to take a step in a new direction; plus those whose fathers and mothers were affected by World War II on both sides of the conflict, Gen X & Y folks who are seeking a way to reconnect to a more tribal, artistic and community-oriented way of living within the confines of modern disconnecting living.
