In this first episode of The Slow Work, host Sandra McCracken sits down with husband and wife team Mako and Haejin Shim Fujimura to discuss commitment, kintsugi, and creative justice. Learn how a unique marital commitment has focused the Fujimuras’ professional ambitions and how building in the midst of brokenness has the power to redeem generational pain. If you’ve been striving or struggling and need a better way, this conversation promises a deep dose of release and hope. Listen in as Mako encourages that sometimes “it’s okay to just behold.”
Special Guests: Makoto Fujimura is one of the most unique and significant artists of our time, a painter whose work explores a combination of contemporary American abstract expressionism and traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. Born in the US and educated both in Japan and in the US, he has had over 140 exhibits in New York, Japan, Santa Fe, and around the world. He formed the International Arts Movement and in 2003 was appointed by the president to the National Council on the Arts.
Haejin Shim Fujimura serves as Embers International’s CEO, where she leads the strategy and engagement that fuels Embers’ growth and vision. Haejin is also the founder and managing partner of Shim & Associates PC and an experienced lawyer. She founded her law firm with the vision of cultural renewal for the legal industry and has its offices in New York and New Jersey. In addition, Haejin is the president of Academy Kintsugi, and with her husband leads the movement of “Beauty + Justice.” She also serves as the team leader of NYC Advocacy & Mobilization Team of International Justice Mission, the largest antislavery organization in the world. She has served on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations.
Resources Referenced: Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura Culture Care Creative “Longing for an Internet Cleanse” by David Brooks Goldenwood Embers International
The Slow Work is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producer: Mike Cosper Host: Sandra McCracken Producers: Luke Brawner and Azurae Phelps Additional Recording: Evan Redwine Editor and Mix Engineer: Dan Phelps Music: Tyler Chester Graphic Design: Chris Bennett Social Media: Kate Lucky
