It is so easy, in our journey to become confident artists to doubt – to question – to have a sense of treading water. A sense of brokenness and discouragement. We all feel it from time to time, and it can be amplified by circumstances and difficulties in life. Certainly this year of COVID lockdowns and isolation has added to the struggle. It’s easy to imagine ourselves as clay pots with cracks and broken pieces.
But, What if….
What if the pieces that appear to be so broken – the loss of connections, of normalcy, the loss of clarity in our calling….the loss of momentum, and maybe even the loss of creative impulse; what if these pieces can be constructed into something more beautiful, more valuable, and more treasured than before?
The Japanese art of Kintsugi suggests that this is possible! And it applies to our spirits and our artistic expression. Kintsugi is translated as Golden Joinery. Centuries ago, it was developed as a way of taking the broken pieces of a valued vessel and mending them with seams of gold. Instead of discarding the pieces, the brokenness was accentuated. Gold highlighted the break, allowing each piece to gleam uniquely with elevated value. The history of each individual vessel is evidenced by being carefully and lovingly mended and restored with honor.
Perhaps brokenness, in this year of so many losses, is really an opportunity. Maybe this, too, is part of our unique human and artistic story. I see it as an opportunity to invite God into our pieces, and watch as He mends and restores. He gives each of us a unique and beautiful pattern – with new possibilities and opportunities, new ideas and new creative flow.
Kintsugi encourages me! The stress lines we feel do not have to result in unredeemable, shattered pieces… they can become the seams of gold that highlight our value and give us greater strength and also bear witness to our individual journeys as people and as artists.
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©2021 Helen Read
(Photo credit: Daniel Tafjord)
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