Loose Leaf Notes

_____Wordless Wednesday / Taken at Grateful Bread in Floyd VA.

Since our house has been  emptied of furniture and turned into a gallery for the Sixteen Hands Studio Tour that my son is a part of, we set up a backstage after-hours cafe for the visiting grandchildren’s Sunday dinner. A 16 Hands Throwdown. Enter at your own risk. Carl, the Five Nights at Freddie’s cupcake, […]

“I’m sittin’ here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough to join the Army—burn women, kids, houses and villages—after bein’ a litterbug.” The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the draft, and to end war.  -from Alice’s Restaurant, performed at […]

I realized just how small our house is when during the Saturday 16 Hands Studio Tour our two downstairs rooms-turned-galleries were as full as a crowded dance floor that I couldn’t turn or spin on. I also noticed that people and pots look good together. The day was filled with visits from friends and collectors […]

For the past 18 years, art lovers have been touring the countryside of Floyd County two weekends a year, visiting the studios of the 16 Hands potters and artists. My son Josh Copus has been a member of the collective for the past six years, showing his new work from his childhood home off the […]

It’s the only time of year I eat gravy and I usually eat too much. I called these plates orange, but my friend Katherine says they’re terra cotta.  I asked her if she had red ones for Christmas A terra cotta candle? We used to play Taboo after dinner but now there are babies to […]

1. “You’re always in a box, and you’re an escape artist if you do what I do – or if you’re a creative person, period. You build your box and then you escape from it. You build another one and you escape from it. That’s ongoing.  And you may at some point escape enough boxes […]

_________Our World Tuesday / Wordless Wednesday

The knife went in but didn’t come out I tracked the pain and point of entry while half asleep and half awake While you were dreaming of her body in the casket and draining her blood behind the funeral parlor because no one else would do it No one twisted it No one cried No […]

Life is real But not forever This day is one unlike any other _________Colleen and Joe /Shadow Shot Sunday

1. “In memoir the heart is in the brain. It’s the Geiger counter you run over memory’s landscape looking for precious metals to light up.  A psychological self-awareness and faith in the power of truth gives you the courage to reveal whatever you unearth, whether you come out looking vain or conniving or hateful or […]

____Wordless Wednesday