“I didn’t feel pretty anymore,” Reveal said. “I had scars on my front, scars on my back. I didn’t have any nipples. It was just kind of devastating to look in the mirror, even though I had really, really good results.”
After Reveal’s surgery, her son Danny told her about Kintsugi: an ancient Japanese art that puts broken pottery pieces back together with gold. The history and the philosophical intent of the art fascinated Reveal. The traditional technique is often a tedious process. The breakage is treated as part of the history of the object, not as something to disguise.
In response to her fascination with the technique, Reveal had a thought: how could she use that concept as inspiration for her cancer journey, to put herself back together?
“At first, I thought I’ll just get a bunch of my friends together who are breast cancer survivors. We’ll have a bottle of wine and we’ll paint ourselves and get a photographer to capture it — like a glamor shot party,” Reveal said. “But within that, we did a healing ceremony. We wrote down all the things that people said to us that we wish they hadn’t. And then we thought, what are we really doing? We are really making ourselves feel more beautiful, taking those broken pieces and highlighting them and not hiding them anymore.”
Kintsugi is about embracing the flaws, imperfections — and in this case, the scars — to create something stronger and more beautiful than before, to symbolically heal wounds with love and gold paint.
Survivors gathered in Reveal’s space at The Well, a center for women’s wellness in Kettering, to tell their stories and have their scars gently painted gold. Photographer Molly Wireman documented the event, and staged a photoshoot with the survivors and their gold-adorned bodies. The photos were presented at the first Breast Cancer Photo Exhibit last October at The Well.
Over a hundred people attended the initial exhibit. It was not only a glimpse into the devastation of breast cancer but a platform for survivors, who used Kintsugi as a healing tool, to also share their testimonies.
MORE DETAILS
The next exhibit will be at the Dayton Metro Library, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 11. The reception will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 3. It will feature organizations such as Breast Wishes, Pink Ribbon Good, Noble Circle, The Well and Christina Siegel R.N., BSN Medical Tattoo Nipple Fairy. Breast cancer survivors will be there to tell their stories.
“There was such a feeling when I went into that room, an unspoken understanding and acceptance of just you, how you are,” said Kelly Johnson, a survivor who participated in the photoshoot. “It was the painting. It was the healing. It was the camaraderie amongst other warriors and survivors and their families. There was just so much love in that room.”
“We have one lady that didn’t let anybody see her for five years,” Reveal said. “And then she came here and felt beautiful again.”
Lisa Bello, a cancer survivor who underwent reconstruction and had it reversed 12 years later, came to the Kintsugi event with a different perspective.
“Every woman has an individual reconstruction experience; there’s a lot of scars that people don’t even know about,” she said. “I just wanted people to know that it’s not just a boob job; it’s a really complicated and traumatic surgical process. That’s why I wanted to participate, to tell that educational healthcare story to the public.”
There’s a vulnerability to painting scars. But within that, there is healing, education, empathy and community; the survivors know that they are not alone.
“After they see the exhibit,” Reveal said, “I hope people remember, whether they’ve had breast cancer or not, that they can use the Kintsugi philosophy in their own life to find something to help them feel whole again. And if it needs to be as symbolic as gold paint, then go for it. But whatever it is, I hope that they find some peace in the brokenness.”
Contact this contributing writer at branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: Kintsugi Breast Cancer Photo Exhibit
When: Exhibit Sept. 30-Oct. 11, Reception 5:30-7:30 p.m., Oct. 3
Where: Dayton Metro Library, St. Clair Opportunity Space, 215 E. 3rd St., Dayton
Cost: Free
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