Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds, revives
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.
— from “In Perpetual Spring” by Amy Gerstler
Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds, revives
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.
— from “In Perpetual Spring” by Amy Gerstler
“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2015.”
Lillia & Zane: Egads, this week was rough! You both look happy and smiley in these photos, but the truth is that the three of us spent some large portion of the week severely under the weather. I caught a tummy bug from my brother and it quickly made its way through the house, only sparing Daddy! So, you both missed a bunch of school, but at least you both recovered in time to enjoy your Spring vacation week. Here’s to healthier days ahead (fingers crossed)!
“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2015.”
Sometimes your kids make the same ridiculous face when you try to take their picture!
Lillia: This week you have been drawing up a storm! You got some new art pens from Mémé & Olde Shoe and you love them so much. You are an epic doodler — I don’t know how many sketchbooks you’ve filled up in your short lifetime, but let’s just say it’s a lot. But, it’s not often that you create something that would be called a “finished” piece. I think the new brush pens have had a huge impact on your art in this regard. Your doodles have color now, and I see that you are taking more time with your lines — they’re less sketchy and more deliberate. You’ve been using your pens to make lovely little illustrated bookmarks for friends and family, and I can’t wait to get one of my own!
Zane: This week we played outside quite a bit. The snow has largely melted (I started writing this prior to it SNOWING AGAIN…for crying out loud!) so we started to clean out the flower beds, and worked on cleaning up all of the sticks that fell from the trees during the winter. You found a bucket in the garage and made “soup” out of all sorts of things you found on the ground: dried up coneflowers; twigs; snow; and rocks. You also really enjoyed helping me to decorate our little easter garden. The wheatgrass we planted came up right on time for Easter morning, and you have been helping me trim it back — boy, does that stuff grow fast! Hopefully the snow will all melt soon, so we can get started on our outdoor garden.
A lot of photographers, when asked who their influences are, might name someone like Ansel Adams or Dorothea Lange. What’s interesting to me is that I’ve never really been drawn to the work of “famous” photographers; my biggest photography role model has always been my own mother, Roxanne Copeland. I decided that I wanted to do a feature on her work, and so I started looking back through some of her earlier pictures that she did on film. I was amazed, stunned, and completely in awe of her talent! And, the funny thing is that, looking back at these photos (a lot of which were taken during my childhood), I can so clearly see the influence of her work on my own picture-making efforts. Some of these pictures I’ve knocked off without even knowing it! I hope you enjoy seeing this little slice of my mom’s talent — which, I might remind you, was all done on FILM — and I’ll be back with a follow-up of her digital work sometime soon.
Because I love the world
I think of grass,
I think of leaves
and the bold sun…
– – –
Teacher, what do you mean?
But faith is still there, and silent.
– – –
And who else could this be, who goes off
down the green path,
carrying His sandals, and singing?
— from “Spring” by Mary Oliver
(you should really read the whole poem; it’s wonderful)
