On a recent visit to the Art Institute with Tim and a friend, I dragged a little into the area of the galleries of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean arts that contains one of my favorites, the Ando Gallery. We had already been at the museum for a couple hours and I was running out of steam. But before we began to think about leaving my soul needed these more contemplative rooms and the beautifully silent Ando space. Walking a little more quickly by some of the works in the front galleries I made my way into the Ando archway.

My eyes adjusted to the dimmer light and then traveled around the outer rim, looking down to the few pieces of what looked like ancient pottery behind the glass windows, carefully displayed. My eyes stopped at one of the pieces and I slowly walked over to it, thinking it looked like some ancient, even prehistoric decayed rock piece. As I drew closer, I began to make out the subtle pockmarks and colors of a large piece of pottery. I bent down to look more closely, and as Tim and our friend made their way over to me, I said softly, “This is the most beautiful piece I’ve seen all day.” There was no response to my statement. Maybe they didn’t share my assessment, or maybe they hadn’t heard me. It didn’t matter. I continued looking at the piece, feeling a calm settle over me.

I slowly got up and made my way around the other pieces behind the glass windows, taking in now the beautiful, large pieces of pottery one by one. Slowly making my way out of Ando’s pillars and doorway, and walking into one of the galleries I had passed through quickly, I realized there were more of these beautiful pieces. One of them the most intense yellow that I have ever encountered. A beautiful yellow bag with its folds and scrunched up into a tie at the top. My heart sang.

Reading more of the titles and descriptions told me that it was an exhibition of women sculptors from Japan, titled Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan. Such gorgeous work. Thank you, radical, bold women.