In his wonderful book Art Faith A Theology of Making renowned artist Makoto Fujimura describes the ancient Japanese art form of Kintsugi In it the artist takes broken pottery originally tea ware and pieces the shards back together with lacquer threading gold into the cracks ldquo Kintsugi rdquo Fujimura explains ldquo does not just lsquo fix rsquo or repair a broken vessel rather the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original rdquo Kintsugi first implemented centuries ago when a warlord rsquo s favorite cup was destroyed and then beautifully restored became art that rsquo s highly [... more]

At first glance I dismissed the painting Consider the Lilies by Makoto Fujimura as a simple monochromatic painting featuring a lily seemingly hiding in the background However the painting came alive when I learned it was actually painted with more than eighty layers of finely crushed minerals in a style of Japanese art known as Nihonga a style Fujimura calls ldquo slow art rdquo Looking closely reveals layers of complexity and beauty Fujimura explains that he sees the gospel echoed in the technique of making ldquo beauty through brokenness rdquo just as Jesus rsquo suffering brought the world wholeness and [... more]