Work in progress

Work in progress

This morning's studio plan did not include this painting that I have worked on all day, on and off. The emotion has been building since the art fair, or maybe much longer, for this one. I am not sure how to express it, but I want to share some of what has been painting itself today. (And I really doubt you will recognize this work when it is done - just so you know.)

I was surprised at how many people I saw at the art fair  - people I know, yes, but also all the people I didn't know. Everyone came by my booth, since it was across from the food trucks. I noticed so many people. And I don't know why, exactly, but I felt like I had to pray for a lot of them. Sometimes I could see trouble on faces or in the way people walked, and sometimes it was something I could not put into words, but I just knew they needed prayer. So I prayed. And at times, I felt burdened, maybe because I thought they felt burdened. 

Some very sorrowful news came our way, too, in the last while. I learned of the death of a 25 year old wife and sister (connected to our family). I learned of a broken marriage. I learned of a lost pregnancy, and other sorrows that I cannot speak about. Oh, friends! My heart breaks for these things! Romans 9:2 ...I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. This verse came up during my Bible reading today, and I felt like I could agree with Paul, the author. 

Two things that are part of what I am trying to express with my paint are shared in different forms of art. One is a song, and the other is an ancient Japanese technique as shared in Art + Faith by Makoto Fujimura. 

My son introduced me to a version of a song that really expresses emotion in the arrangement and tone of the recording. It is The Silence of God, by Andrew Peterson, but is recorded by Death Therapy.  When I listen, I feel the darkness of despair, the cold sorrow and tears of Jesus weeping in the garden alone, and the brokenness of our world - our need for the God Who loves us. 

Kintsugi bowl
Photo by Riho Kitagawa on Unsplash

Kintsugi is "the ancient Japanese art form of repairing broken tea ware by reassembling ceramic pieces... which now becomes more beautiful and more valuable than the original, unbroken vessel."  Art + Faith, p. 43 I have been thinking about how our broken, needy world can be made beautiful by God's grace. Not unchanged or just-like-new, but now even more precious. "Kintsugi does not just "fix" or repair a broken vessel; rather, the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original..." Art + Faith, p44.

This is what I want to paint, my friends. I want to paint the beauty that is more precious because of the broken. The scars. The beauty that is one of a kind and only brought about by a Master artist.