Lynne Farrow reports on her teaching art and spirituality in Malaysia in July as part of BuildaBridge's growing relationship with artists there.

The second day of the class Art & Spiritual

Development was a real smashing success. Literally. The fifteen students gathered in Penang from all over southeast Asia were presented with glazed terra cotta pots...and hammers, and were invited to smash their pots. The art activity directed by Lynne Farrow, visiting California artist and lecturer representing BuildaBridge, was intended to address issues of brokenness, healing, and transformation - lofty ideas accompanied by lots of groans as the hammers were passed from student to student.  

Pot fragments spilled out on the tables and all-purpose glue began to be applied to the broken pieces being fitted together again. Frustration soon surfaced because the glue doesn't set up quickly. Pieces that were put together one minute fell apart the next. This wasn't going to be a easy or as fast as the students expected. Ah....the first teaching moment had arrived. Lynne confessed to using a particular type of glue BECAUSE it didn't set up quickly. She explained that it was a metapor for how we often want to deal with our brokenness. We want the quick fix and don't want to take the time to sit with our pain and suffering and brokenness to allow the healing the process to happen.

Many other teaching moments and metaphors emerged during the hour and forty five minutes as the students not only put their pots back together, but continued to embellish them with pens, newpaper image and word collages, colored construction paper, and metallic markers. Each simple "perfectly good" pot, seemingly spoiled by smashing, was becoming a new creation. When the mid-morning bell rang Lynne encouraged them to take their break. Not a single student left the classroom art studio for their mid-morning tea!

Following the morning chapel, the students regathered with their transformed pots and spent an hour sharing about their creations, what the process was like for them, the issues of brokenness that surfaced, and how they experienced God's grace and mercy in their lives that were reflected in their individual pots. There were some powerful "sermons" preached through talking about their pots. We, as a bunch of acknowedged "cracked pots," gathered for a group photo to celebrate our day together.