Job #6: Heartbreak. Restoration.  

Although the book of Job is marked by pain, its ending points to hope, justice, and God’s care.
My wish for this final piece in the series is to express both suffering and hope.
Job’s heart is shattered after losing his children, his possessions, and his health.
Yet even in despair, he points to hope.
The book of Job reminds us that there is no direct link between one’s righteousness and how life unfolds. Put simply: life is not fair.

To show how even a completely broken heart can be mended, I have hand stitched gold thread between some of the shattered pieces.
This references the Japanese art form Kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired using gold or silver lacquer. Rather than hiding the damage, the cracks are highlighted, becoming a part of the object’s history and beauty.

No one passes through life without scars.  
As the Danish author Suzanne Brøgger wrote: “Only a broken heart is whole.”

Job 29: 3
“[…] by his light I walked through darkness!”

Job 14: 7-9
“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.
Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.”

“Job #6: Heartbreak. Restoration.” is pieced and fused.
It is freemotion quilted, freemotion appliquéd, hand embroidered and painted.