You know "wabi-sabi", right? Well, put it this way, the stuff that you created in elementary school could be considered wabi-sabi. "Imperfect, impermanent and incomplete" is what wikipedia says about wabi-sabi.
In kindergarten for Mother's Day I made my mom a "paper holder" out of two paper plates with glued on pasta shells that were sprayed gold. It was a thing of beauty and I was so proud of it. So was my mom. In fact, it stayed on our cellar door for years, holding all manner of odd pieces of paper.
The "pasta as decoration" thing must have been a craze in 1960's kindergartens, because my husband made a pencil holder out of a frozen orange juice container and those gold-enfused pasta shells, too!
All kidding aside, wabi-sabi is a Japanese-derived philosophy of art. It is a beautiful expression of nature, created with kindness and compassion for the beauty of the natural materials. According to wikipedia, the wabi-sabi aesthetic "include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes."
Last week, while enjoying soulful music and wine at a GreenDrinks event at SUNY Stony Brook campus, I met an artist Matthew Fallon that creates beautiful wabi-sabi furnishings among other things. I had to share some of these photos with you.
And if you are interested in learning more about Matthew (he is a wonderful musician) or any of these handcrafted items made with love, please visit his Facebook fan page.
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