Thursday Salute to Originals: Making Mends
Take a walk anywhere and you’re almost sure to find several random discarded objects on the ground along the way.
While most of us wouldn’t give a second glance to the litter, artist Glen Taylor thinks differently. Using his skills as a cabinet maker and his long-time interest in Kintsugi – the Japanese art form of celebrating the repairs made to broken pottery – Taylor creates masterpieces by fusing together broken pottery pieces with found objects. While he used to work with just pottery, but in an effort to discover a greater range of creative expression, Taylor found joy in breaking ceramics only to create new and unique works of art.
The found materials Taylor typically uses consist of metal – knives, barbed wire, spoons, and other household objects. But Taylor also explores twine and old book pages as mediums. He solders these objects to broken pieces of porcelain, turning a half into a whole with an effort to not cover up the art’s imperfections. For Taylor, this is much more than art. He uses his work as an emotional outlet as well, as it has aided him in expressing grief after the passing of his mother.
This Thursday we’re saluting Glen Taylor for seeing the whole picture and imagining all of the possibilities. More importantly, Taylor has found an incredible outlet to maintain his mental health. You can view more of his work here on his Instagram.
Sources: Glen Taylor, This is Colossal