Kintsugi is the Japanese art of restoring broken pottery by joining the fragments together with gold. The broken places are not covered up but gathered together as something new and beautiful. The COVID pandemic has fiercely disrupted our lives and for many, shattered them. Some of the pieces are small and manageable, others are large chunks we are now only discovering are missing.
Using the art of Kintsugi as a metaphor, this virtual retreat offers you the opportunity to reflect on the inner work of re-turning and re-storyation, whether from the initial pandemic experience, the ongoing challenges of it, or the unknowns moving forward. We will reflect on the pandemic from several perspectives: In hindsight, what do we make of the last 18 months? How might we engage a "new normal" with foresight and intention? Most of all, what insight, what deeper wisdom will we take from this period of history? These are deeply interior questions to ponder. They are also urgently communal.
Our online engagement will be contemplative, expansive, interactive and creative...but no need to be "artistic" or "creative" to find this workshop meaningful. There will be several avenues for personal and shared reflection throughout the day and plenty of screen breaks. Each registered participant will receive in the mail a packet of creative items to assist with their engagement.
Fee: $75
Registration is required below. Participants must register by September 22nd, to allow time to receive the packet of materials through the mail.
About:
Founded by minister, spiritual director and artist Susannah Crolius, art + soul has been unfurling since 2014 as an experiment and expression of finding innovative ways to transfigure tired, wounded and neglected stories of heart and soul into life-giving questions and discoveries of authenticity through the vessel of expressive art making and writing and giving voice. For more information about art + soul: www.artandsoulwm.org
Susannah is an artist, midwiving found object altars which transform old stories into new ones, reworking discarded scraps, old wood, natural materials, and eclectic objects into containers that both hold stories and invite new ways of seeing. Susannah was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ denomination for 25 years, before choosing to step out beyond the boundaries of any singular denominational identity as the contours of and need for spiritual community continue to shape-shift.
