Kintsugi, roughly translated as 'golden joinery', is a Zen tradition of repairing broken ceramics with a gold infused lacquer. Rather than trying to hide the cracks, the gold lacquer makes a strong and beautiful show of where the pieces were broken and rejoined. It is a practice filled with love and respect for the item being carefully restored while acknowledging and celebrating the damage it has endured along the way. In this way I want to show that despite the many times that my mental health difficulties have broken me, I am still proud to be whole and have taken great care to put myself back together again but that I also carry the history of those experiences with me and they are a part of who I am and make me, as a person, stronger and more beautiful than before.
By painting gold cracks on my skin I am showing others that I have experienced mental illness and also making the statement that I am not ashamed of it, I want to display it for all to see because it is a part of my history and a part of me. I want to let others know that they are not alone.
If you would like to, please join me on October 10th and post your pictures to the KUTA Facebook page. Please pass this idea on to all who you think might be interested and let's show the world that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of.
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