Medium: Natural clay (with images printed on paper), glue and acrylic

This piece was created as part of my art therapy program homework: “Create, Destroy, and Transform.” I picked the Japanese Kintsugi art for this assignment. Kintsugi art gathered broken pieces of ceramics and restored them back to one piece. It is a symbol of healing and restoration and a treasured piece to pass down to generations to come. Japanese artists gathered broken household pieces after the Fukushima tsunami and used them to create murals to restore the community from the tragic experience.

I decided to create a simple bowl, a common object in Kintsugi art. I have never attempted to make such a large size clay object. I tried to knead it but it was difficult (the modelling clay is a lot harder to knead than ceramic clay). The bowl began to take shape and I was quite happy with how it turned out to be. My daughter asked me, “mommy, are you really going to break it?” To be honest, I felt reluctant to “destroy” the beautiful piece I made.

As I engaged in the “destruction” process, it was much more difficult than I thought. I found myself couldn’t apply a strong force onto the bowl (that probably represents my reluctance). I had to pound it very hard for it to break but that was a huge inner struggle for me. Then I attempted to glue the pieces back together. Interestingly in the repair process, the hot glue did not work! Before this, I thought hot glue was magical - it could glue together anything. I ended up using regular school clear glue and it worked well. This taught me not to underestimate the healing power of something ordinary and seemingly less strong. The new bowl (after cracking, gluing and painting) is a tangible witness to my experience of restoration. While it was extremely difficult to see the clay bowl being shattered, the restored pottery shines with a unique beauty in brokenness and serves as a symbol of hope. Kintsugi art is such an inspiration for life. It encourages us to embrace and find beauty in brokenness.