Makoto Fujimura

The Art of Redeeming Our Battered Era Artist Makoto Fujimura on loving what is broken and the holy work of repair.

"How is an art-shaped theology relevant to those of us who do not paint (much less paint with Christ’s tears), sculpt, or sing?" Sojourners' Julie Polter interviewed @iamfujimura.bsky.social for this piece from 2021.
sojo.net/magazine/feb...

why wouldn't he do the same for ours? "Glorious imperfection"!
@iamfujimura.bsky.social 5/5

is healed not to the original perfection but to glorious imperfection? It is one thing to find glory in Christ wounds, but what about in our wounds?" What, indeed, does Christ see as glory? What is the final glory he is intending for me, for you? Of course, if he chose to keep his own wounds, 4/

I have indeed meditated on the beauty of Christ's glorious wounds and that he chose to keep them in his glorified body, but what actually stopped me in my reading was his footnote on that section. Think about this: "[W]hat if our brokenness, through Christ's wounds, 3/

(See pinned article in my profile for more info.) In this book, Mako, in writing again about the art of kintsugi, speaks about the value of our woundedness: "Wounds, whether they be those of an urushi tree or those of Christ, are portals into the miraculous sacrifice that leads to beauty." 2/

I have been "slow reading" Mako Fujimura's marvelous new book, Art Is, and this morning, I had to stop to ponder at one point in his section on kintsugi. Some of you may not know that the catalyst for Mako and I meeting with Pope Francis in 2022 was to present him with a kintsugi piece. 1/

The fact that I won’t have time in my life to read all the beautiful books or see all the beautiful birds makes me sad. And happy.

Because what would life be if we could get to the end of all the beauty?

November 2025 Culture Care Newsletter Practicing Resurrection

November IAMCultureCare Newsletter is out!

“I wonder whether the tree outside my office window is a portent for these quickening days. This November, I hope you find similar portals, similar abundant alternatives to measured scarcity.” Jacob Beaird

iamculturecare.com/news/novembe...

Pastor a church long enough, and you’ll end up walking with the same people through the highest of highs and some very dark nights of the soul, too.

What a gift it is to celebrate with them. What a gift it is to mourn together.

Congregations see the whole of life.

One Halloween I dressed up as the GOP's Healthcare plan.

I never made it out of the House.

Dave Roberts is a great manager

An Air Canada flight right now

Light shining in my studio. #ArtIs @yalebooks.bsky.social

a photograph of the interior of a church. Several people are visible sitting in pews. In the pew immediately in front of the photographer, a black human-sized cardboard cutout in the outline of a woman is visible, as though a shadow is sitting in the pew in front of you.

Went to a prayer service tonight at St. Mary of the Lake, where they have cardboard cutouts throughout the church representing parishioners afraid to come to Mass because of ICE.

Negotiating the Invisible The Fujimuras review "Kyoto," a play that shows the complexities and complicities of climate policy.

“This is the invitation of holy dissidence: to become stewards, not warriors.”

@iamfujimura.bsky.social and Haejin Shim Fujimura on “Kyoto” and the art of beholding.

#ColorADay #PinkMon #MagentaMonday #EastCoastKin #Photography #fog

Sunrise in #Portland #Oregon as the fog diffuses the color spectrum.

We Are Not Fascists, and If You Call Us Fascists, We Will Arrest You President Trump had another successful week of what is already the greatest presidency of all time, and yet, the woke leftist mob continues to deli...

"Fascist regimes have classic, telltale traits, like vilifying immigrants, adopting patriotic symbolism of their nation’s glorious past, and embracing a narrow definition of masculinity and family values. But just because we also do all of those things does not make us fascists."

Kirigami is endlessly fun and fascinating. As a little boy, I was obsessed...cutting intricate shapes for hours, imagining whole worlds from paper. I don’t have as much time now, but I still admire it deeply. Passion for its art and beauty has only grown stronger.

Don't look away.

Hospitals are such holy spaces.

Blessings to you who work there, you who visit, you who suffer and hope for healing.

Plate 304: Lavender leaved hermannia (Hermannia lavendulifolia)

Your daily dose of botanical drawings from the Botanical Magazine.

Lavender leaved hermannia (Hermannia lavendulifolia)
Plate 304 in volume 9, 1795.

#magazine #artist #plants #curtis #botany

Detail of the margin of a page from a 16th century book with a hand-drawn manicule or pointed finger added in ink, indicating a section of printed text.

A section so important, it required two 'manicules' or pointing fingers, left by 16th century readers. It describes the coronation of Charles VII of France in 1380 & is from Fabyan's Chronicle, a history of Britain printed in 1516
#ManiculeMonday #MondayMarginalia

A museum opening of my work in Taiwan featured Ravel.

They traveled to Thailand. They wound up cyber scam slaves in Myanmar. A multibillion-dollar fraud industry has taken root across Southeast Asia, fueled partly by trafficking victims. In lawless zones along the Myanmar-Thai border, Chinese-run compounds force thousands t...

Very well done graphic-novel-style reporting by Reuters. Highly recommended.
www.reuters.com/graphics/SOU...

May our art provide consolation.

If my writing about autism does anything, whether it be in my books, my columns or my reported stories, I hope it advances the idea that autistic people are whole human beings as they are with legitimate needs and inner lives that deserve to be told the same as other stories.

BREAKING: Trump cancels a meeting with the Democratic leaders in Congress. He doesn't want to negotiate about government funding or the Republican health care crisis. He is leading us into a government shutdown.
apnews.com/article/trum...