Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with varnish infused with gold. When I sewed this broken heart from red felt and stitched a golden seam to fix it, I was reminded of A Kintsugi Life, a website that had often inspired me. While pondering how my heart was healing, I remembered our family heirloom cookie jar, which my husband had repaired years ago. Examining the jar was a powerful reminder of his meticulous care in putting it…
I have found that gratitude is another antidote to overwhelm and despair. When I began my gratitude practice many years ago, I found inspiration in a little book titled “Attitudes of Gratitude” by M.J. Ryan. The book is packed with inspirational reading and notes on feeling grateful. Practicing gratitude every day has helped me immensely, even during the difficult times of my husband’s illness and passing. After drawing, coloring, and cutting out the pair of hands on this canvas, I…
I felt the need to gather positive thoughts fairly early in my grieving. The old expression “Feather Your Nest” kept coming to mind, so I composed this little poem to express my feelings. Feather a nest where your heart can restLined with blessings soft as down.Moisten with tears over the yearsYou are never truly alone. As I wrote the poem, I remembered a small nest I’d had leftover from a craft project years before. After covering a canvas square with…
I recently created this canvas as I explored a recurring theme in my life and artistic expression. This idea, which I originally created over 30 years ago, expresses my belief in the miracle of and connection between all living things. I created the flower and rainbow from paper with accents of beads and tulle. The snowflake is a refurbished charm from a old bracelet. This is the original piece, created in 1992. The image has become a personal symbol of…
The background of this artwork is cut from a watercolor wash that I experimented with many years ago. Using this paper from my past gave me a sense of continuity and promise. Despite the mix of emotions I felt while putting the canvas together, using this paper helped me feel a sense of connection to my past and my future. The twine was collected from my basement. The flower is crafted from a variety of papers with tiny beads creating…
Doubt has the potential to overshadow my positive ideas and accomplishments, creating a dark curtain over all bright and hopeful plans. I drew the flowers for this piece with colored pencils, one of my favorite mediums. To represent the feeling of doubt, I created a mixed media “curtain” by dripping and marbling thick layers of paint. I then cut out the shape and placed it over my flower drawing. Though I wouldn’t say I liked covering the flowers, it was…
This simple piece was one of the first I created as I took tentative steps toward healing. I sometimes create flowers from paper, as I did with these snowdrops. The red paper heart is cut from scrapbooking paper, while the background paper was purchased from a favorite handmade paper shop. The flowers in the picture are Snowdrops, a symbol of renewal and hope. Snowdrops are among the first flowers to appear in early spring. Since grieving can feel like wandering…
Healing from loss has required tapping into resources I never knew I had. I often found inspiration in unexpected places. Clinging to the idea of hope in the essential goodness of life and the positive flow of healing was not easy, but I found even my darkest moments held promise if I remained open to possibility. This uplifting poem by Emily Dickinson expresses the universal quality of hope. Hope Is the Thing With FeathersHope is the thing with feathers –That…