Refined
This new body of work, Refined, was born out of a long season of reflection—on breaking, becoming, and the quiet beauty that can exist in between.
Conceptually, this collection is influenced in part by the philosophy behind kintsugi, the traditional Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold. What resonates most deeply for me is not the visual alone, but the idea beneath it: that damage is not hidden, erased, or treated as failure, but honored as part of the object’s history. The break becomes integral to the whole. Something new is formed—not a return to what once was, but a transformation into something different, and often stronger.
I hold that idea with care and respect. Refined is not an attempt to replicate kintsugi, but rather to sit alongside its philosophy—exploring how fracture, tension, and repair can become places of meaning.
Conceptually, this collection is influenced in part by the philosophy behind kintsugi, the traditional Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold. What resonates most deeply for me is not the visual alone, but the idea beneath it: that damage is not hidden, erased, or treated as failure, but honored as part of the object’s history. The break becomes integral to the whole. Something new is formed—not a return to what once was, but a transformation into something different, and often stronger.
I hold that idea with care and respect. Refined is not an attempt to replicate kintsugi, but rather to sit alongside its philosophy—exploring how fracture, tension, and repair can become places of meaning.
There’s a quiet renewal that happens in this process. One that doesn’t arrive all at once, but daily. Slowly. With new mercies each morning.
I don’t often speak about my faith on my art platforms, but it would feel disingenuous not to acknowledge how central it is to this collection. While the collection is in part influenced by the beauty of kintsugi; my understanding of refinement, renewal, and restoration is deeply rooted in my relationship with God. I truly believe He is at the center of my own transformation—the steady presence within the breaking and the rebuilding. This work reflects that belief, even in its restraint.
Refined holds space for complexity: for beauty that comes through pressure, for light that settles into cracks, for wholeness that doesn’t deny what’s been broken. My hope is that these pieces offer viewers a place to pause—to recognize their own fractures not as disqualifications, but as places where strength, meaning, and renewal can take root.
