I admit I had never heard of the Japanese Zen Buddhist aesthetic called wabi-sabi. A belief that all things are incomplete, impermanent and imperfect. The esthetic of wabi-sabi encourages a contemplative look at our lives through a meditative and diciplined search for humility and understanding of our place in the physical world. I met artist Brad Stroman while on assignment for Caroline Home + Garden and was deeply moved by his work and philosophy. I’ve always been a perfectionist but I came away from the shoot thinking that my perfectionism often gets in the way of true creativity and that acknowledging the possibility of incompleteness and imperfection can lead to a higher state of creativity.
