Aggrandizing the Broken

Early this week I was sent a little message and share on Facebook from a regular contributor to The Polymer Arts, Sherilyn Dunn, who, upon recalling a conversation we had about scars, thought I would be interested in this quote from Billie Mobayad:

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damaged and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”

The reason Sherilyn sent that is because that is exactly how I feel. I think scars are beautiful. The cracks and damage, the chips and worn surfaces of the things around us, and on and within ourselves as well, is just telling of the richness and beauty of life. It does not mean it was always a happy life but those scars we carry are our stories, and whether we received them through tragedy or courageous adventure or something in between, they are testaments to our history.  The more scars you have, the more you really know of the world. Or so I have always thought.

Which is, I know, a large part of why I am drawn to pieces like this one from Anastasyia Arynovich. According to her LiveJournal entry, she created this while “in the delirium of influenza”. Do you see how some of the hard things we go through can result in some very beautiful things?

Of course, this also reminded me of the quote I had just been sent. We don’t assign much value to stone, but when it is cracked open and either reveals or is filled with something of high value, like gold, we see it in such a different light. The contrast of the surfaces in these stone-like beads–shiny versus matte, smooth versus rough–just accentuates the contrast in perceived value. Actually, the expectations are reversed. Don’t we usually expect gold to be smooth and stone to be rough? The thin wavy lines, suggesting water or air, bring another, fragile level of contrast as well. It makes for a wonderful piece.

Anastasyia is also an incredible caner. Take a tour of her Flickr photostream to see what I mean. It will be a delightful ‘break’ in your day.

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