Yesterday I found a quote that fits so very well to one of my latest glass pictures that I thought I have to share it with you:
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break & all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” —L.R. Knost
One Sunday morning I walked with one of my neighbour friends along the Cornish Coast. It was a bit of a grey morning but now and then the sun peeked out and lit the ocean under our feet. One of these magic moments inspired me to create this piece of fused Artisan Glass. But when I took it out of the kiln it slipped out of my hands and broke. First I was very sad, because I did like the piece of work and thought it was lost. But then I did remember a Japanese tradition called Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. I always liked this philosophy and thought this is exactly what I would try with my broken piece of art work. I added crushed glass and little torch formed glass balls as well as gold to the areas of breakage and fused the pieces together again.
I do like the result even better than the piece before it broke, it tells two stories now, the story of the light shining even on a grey day and the story of a new World created out of a broken one. With this I wish all of us lots of love and empathy for the creation of our new and more human World.
