Life Raft
When my kids and I moved into the house where we now live, in the midst of my oldest child’s nightmare-ish medical crisis, we named it “the Life Raft” because it was just big enough for us to survive on- just big enough to hold us afloat until we find more solid ground. I don’t have a studio or a bedroom. There’s not a lot of common space either, but the kids each have their own small room (necessary in the teen years). There’s a small kitchen and a bathroom. The yard is a predictable square.
And as life keeps pushing forward and we’re through that medical crisis (and we’re still here), and the world at large is chaos, I keep thinking about that word (liferaft). I, like maybe most people, have been almost consumed by recent terrible and shocking news and realities. But if I step away from all that noise (which I am lucky to be able to do) and go outside for a moment and am quiet, listen and watch, I can pull myself up and see how to keep going. I can see everything that keeps going around us, regardless. That’s the life raft.
I don’t draw to show that I have everything figured out, I draw to try to figure things out. I draw to really look- and be humbled because I’ll never fully get it. I draw things that bring me back to a place of wonder, of not knowing how the story ends- but feeling all the possibilities! That’s the life raft too.
April Coppini
April 2026
When my kids and I moved into the house where we now live, in the midst of my oldest child’s nightmare-ish medical crisis, we named it “the Life Raft” because it was just big enough for us to survive on- just big enough to hold us afloat until we find more solid ground. I don’t have a studio or a bedroom. There’s not a lot of common space either, but the kids each have their own small room (necessary in the teen years). There’s a small kitchen and a bathroom. The yard is a predictable square.
And as life keeps pushing forward and we’re through that medical crisis (and we’re still here), and the world at large is chaos, I keep thinking about that word (liferaft). I, like maybe most people, have been almost consumed by recent terrible and shocking news and realities. But if I step away from all that noise (which I am lucky to be able to do) and go outside for a moment and am quiet, listen and watch, I can pull myself up and see how to keep going. I can see everything that keeps going around us, regardless. That’s the life raft.
I don’t draw to show that I have everything figured out, I draw to try to figure things out. I draw to really look- and be humbled because I’ll never fully get it. I draw things that bring me back to a place of wonder, of not knowing how the story ends- but feeling all the possibilities! That’s the life raft too.
April Coppini
April 2026
