Wabi Sabi .... 'A way of Seeing' (3) by Thea Bouwman

About "Wabi Sabi .... 'A way of Seeing' (3)"

by Thea Bouwman

About the artwork

The content of the Japanese concept of life Wabi Sabi is difficult to grasp. After all ... how is it possible that something unfinished, yellowed and decayed can still be worthwhile? How is it possible to appreciate the imperfect? And yet that is precisely what is at the heart of the Japanese philosophy of life "Wabi Sabi".

It takes some getting used to, but when you learn to look with appreciation at things that have perished or rotted away, a new visual language emerges, new admiration: a new way of looking.

Wabi Sabi is therefore also expressed in words like: The art of the imperfect: the beauty of the impermanent.

'Wabi Sabi' says: Even something that is incomplete, something that is unfinished and in which impermanence becomes visible, can be very beautiful and is therefore close. Wabi Sabi is thus closely related to the concept of Kintsugi: The technique, elevated to an art form, of gluing shards of pottery with gold. And, to apply it to our humanity: to show scars instead of hiding them. How healing that can be.

With this concept, I set to work with melted paraffin, oil pastel and bister:: an ink, brown as the earth, based on the bark of walnuts. Letting the paraffin wax and ink do its thing, scratching and carving, created shapes and marks, lines and colours.

A work of art without flaws? No for sure not, because by carving a little too forcefully, the paper tore...a tear that became part of the imperfection.... Wabi Sabi at its best!