Self Portrait with Eight Week Old Daughter, 20" x 16," 2010

Second Place

A Letter to My New Daughter:

Dear Sophia,  

      You are the thirteenth generation of our family to live in these United States. You

come from a long line of intrepid immigrants who came to this country in search of promise, freedom, and opportunity. You were recently baptized in your great, great, great grandmother's christening gown, made intricately with love by her own mother, in the church in Atlanta in which your father and I met. The pastor who married your father and me baptized you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

     And here is my prayer for you: may you have the steadfastness, the perseverance, and the faith of all of your ancestors. May you be the best of us all. May you be a good person, of good character. May you have a special talent all your own that you pursue with all your heart, whether you are an inventor like your great, great grandfather, an engineer like your father, a businessman like your grandfathers, a musician like your grandmother, or an artist like your mother. May you pursue knowledge for both the love of learning and for what you can do to improve your own small circle of the world. May you feed your mind and follow your heart. Whatever you do, may you do it with love and with compassion for others. May you, in the words of your great, great aunt who has mentored me all my life, learn the blessing in giving only what you can give freely and with joy. You are a blessing, full of joy. Already in your first year, you have inspired us all with your new eyes, for every moment and every experience is a miracle to you. We thank you, for you have opened our eyes to these tiny, daily miracles. Your new life gives us new life. You continue to share with us your name: Sophia, wisdom.

     I hold you in my arms and whisper this prayer for you.

With deepest love,  

Your Mother

Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, 5" x 5," 2011

Third Place

  In the past few months, I have been drawing on the interplay between art and poetry. This work reflects that ekphrastic dialogue, what Horace called "ut pictura poesis," meaning, as in painting, so in poetry. The title, Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, refers to a stanza of English Romantic printer and poet William Blake's Auguries of Innocence. It depicts my new daughter's hand cupped in both of mine. Pursuing this dialogue between the arts is a family tradition, and so is working with our hands. We are a family of engineers, artists, teachers, musicians, and academics. We are also a family of cooks, inventors, gardeners, farmers, and mechanics. Our ancestors came to America from England filled with hope for their lives and their children. Our first hands arrived on these shores, filled with promise, in the sixteen-thirties. They came to create and to enjoy creation. Sophia is the thirteenth generation of our family to explore the world with her hands in these United States of America.