The Spin

A meditation on Kintsugi, resilience, and the art of putting ourselves back together

Drawing by Heidi Zin www.heidizinart.com

Spinning Back Together: Beauty in the Broken

With all the ugliness in the world lately, I’ve been craving reminders of something else, something deeper, quieter, and more powerful.

Beauty.

Resilience.

The way the human spirit finds a way back.

That’s why I wanted to share the work of my dear friend and client, Heidi Zin. She creates some of the most extraordinary pieces of art I’ve ever encountered, pieces that come straight from the heart and soul. When you know the story behind them, they become even more powerful.

Imagine being at the height of doing the thing you love most. It flows from your body, your heart, your creativity. It’s part of who you are.

And then in an instant, it’s gone.

That’s what happened to Heidi.

A tragic accident left her with a traumatic brain injury and the loss of the use of her arms. Overnight, the life she knew, and the way she created art, disappeared.

Most people would have accepted that as the end of the story.

But Heidi didn’t.

Instead, she began again, slowly, painfully, courageously. She learned how to paint and draw with her feet. She rebuilt not just her creative practice, but her entire relationship to her body, to movement, and to expression.

Her journey is captured in a stunning coffee table book that traces this transformation, from the moment everything changed to the moment she found her way back to creating the powerful work she makes today.

One of my favorite pieces of hers is called The Spin.

There’s something about this image that stops me every time I see it.

Maybe it’s the sense of motion.

Maybe it’s the feeling of breaking apart and coming back together at the same time.

Or maybe it’s because it reminds me that even when I feel like I’m spinning, broken in so many ways, there is still a way to come back together beautifully.

The Art: I Am Kintsugi, The Spin

This drawing measures 30” x 40” and is framed in a lightweight white frame with plexiglass and acid free mounting. It is hermetically sealed in the back to preserve the work.

Heidi created the piece using powdered graphite, various pencils, and Prismacolor, with 24 carat gold leaf applied to the arms.

The inspiration behind the piece comes from the Japanese philosophy of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, the repairs are highlighted, transforming the object into something new, often more beautiful and more valuable than the original.

That philosophy became a metaphor for Heidi’s own journey of putting herself back together.

In the drawing, a dahlia flower, one of Heidi’s favorites, emerges as a central symbol. If you follow the stem downward, you’ll notice roots growing into the abdominal area of the figure, representing new growth and regeneration.

Heidi even dipped real dahlias into watered graphite, pressing them onto the paper to create prints of the flowers. These were cut out and layered into the composition, orbiting around the figure as she spins.

Look closely into the sky and you will begin to notice hidden forms.

Birds, whales, turtles, alligators, flower pods, cats, and dolphins appear within the movement of the piece, all creatures from nature that inspire Heidi and remind her of the beauty she continually returns to.

The image itself begins with Heidi tracing her own body. From there she refines and reshapes the flow of the form. The composition reveals multiple layers, the female body, the profile of a face, and shapes that transform into animals as the image expands outward.

The entire drawing took two months of focused work, and it is part of her larger I AM series, a body of work that references the universal energy connecting all living things.

Supporting Independent Art

The original piece is available for purchase for $5,000, and prints are also available in a variety of sizes.

www.heidizinart.com

With Mother’s Day coming up, this would make an extraordinary and meaningful gift, but honestly any day is a perfect day to bring a piece like this into your home.

Because when you support an independent artist, you are not just buying art.

You are supporting a story, a journey, and a human being who refused to give up on beauty.

And sometimes that reminder is exactly what we need.

Especially right now.