Cohen Levi Campbell. The perfect boy.
I’ve been working on a special portrait commission for quite some time now. I don’t usually take commissions anymore because it’s so difficult for me to put my heart and soul into another person’s ideas. However, when Josh came to me with this story, I truly believed that I could bring this idea to life for him, and it’s one of those projects that makes me feel like maybe what I do can be more than simply throwing paint on a canvas.
This is Josh Campbell’s story…
“I just remember when Laurie told me she was pregnant for the third time.. It was a surreal feeling, and it finally felt like we had life figured out! I was just promoted all of our children healthy and happy.
We had just moved into our new house we built and it just seem like all was right in the world. Laurie ended up catching Covid (she was around 10 weeks pregnant) and was unbelievably sick for around 10 days. Towards the end we had to take her to the ER and the doctors after about three attempts doctors finally found Cohen’s heartbeat. That was the first scare. After that we had several checkups and all seem to be well. Fast forward 5 weeks and her water broke… she was put on fluid overnight and only retained 2.9 oz of fluid which was not enough. We went to countless doctor visit and specialists and finally we were told Cohen was not showing any signs of kidney development. Our whole world as we knew it changed in that moment. I will never forget that feeling we had walking out of that last visit.
Cohen passed two hours after he was born. I was holding him and again another feeling I will never forget. I felt him leave this world. I guess my hope for whatever this painting ends up being is it shows how perfect he was. It shows how we don’t regret anything, how pure he was, and a feeling of warmth. As a thank you to Laurie for going through all of that to let me meet him. It is something I will never be able to repay her for. I want to showcase the beauty and happiness she gave me, and the life while short still an everlasting impact on us.”
-Josh Campbell
My goal with Cohen was to paint him in a way that felt warm - that replaced some of the hard memories associated with that moment with ones of love and sweet remembrance. And to contain this experience in a way that lets Cohen live on. Happy belated Birthday Cohen Levi Campbell.
