Beauty From Imperfection

Radio producer Julie Burstein’s lessons in creativity keynote shares what she calls “four embraces” that people must welcome in order to tap into their imagination.

Using the traditional Japanese pottery art, raku, as a metaphor, Burstein for creation. The labor-intensive art allows the maker to play with the elements, deciding its initial shape and glaze and ultimately having to let go of all control when the object is placed into the fire. It’s a careful discipline, a practice of understanding what one can control and what must be let go. In the end, it was the imperfections that people cherished the most.

Like raku, the process of creativity must derive from experience, challenge, limitations and loss, the “four embraces.” Sometimes, in order to find creativity, Burstein explains, one must look into the eye of rejection, heartbreak, war and death. Something beautiful can be born simply by paying attention the world around us, void of all distractions, pushing own personal limits and embracing the inevitable experience. The cracks and broken pieces along the way only depict a richer experience.