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Edgar Jerins
A charcoal drawing of three people sitting around a table of a patio, smoking cigarettes together.

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David and Anita Visiting Daina
Collection of the artist, courtesy ACA Galleries, New York City

The drawing depicts, from left to right, my cousins David Cepure, Anita Cepure, and Daina Rhoads sitting on the porch of Daina’s farmhouse in Lindsborg, Kansas. David and Anita, despite early talent and promise in painting and music, have both seen their lives gradually fall into depression and substance abuse. Their older sister Daina is married to Doyle Rhoads. The couple have no children of their own. Anita’s children—Barry, 17; Sarah, 15; and Brittany, 11—were removed from her care. At the time of my drawing, Anita has arrived with her brother in the hopes of wooing her children into moving back with her. The emotional loyalties and relationships between my three cousins change daily, if not hourly, with constant drama, potential breakdowns, and emotional explosions kept only tenuously at bay by Daina and Doyle’s practical commitment to do what is in the children’s best interest.