Inkblots XXIX 2026 The John Cooper School afterimage Inkblots XXIX 2026
One John Cooper Drive The Woodlands, Texas 77381 Phone: 281-367-0900 inkblots@johncooper.org 1
dear reader, What do we leave behind? When we are gone, what parts of ourselves survive, and which ones fade away? It is these challenging questions that the pages of this magazine strive to address; it is this space between disappearing and remaining that the 29th volume of Inkblots is nestled within. vanish along with you? We hope these ponderings will stay with you even after you have flipped past the final page, and that echoes of evocative artwork and compelling lines of writing will make an ever-lasting home in your heart. Your Co-Editors-In-Chief, Aizah Zaidi and Raj Davis An afterimage is the very embodiment of this duality. By definition, it is “a visual sensation or image that persists after the original stimulus has ceased or been removed.” Yes, it is the mark of an end. But equally so, it is physical proof that anything that vanishes must leave behind an imprint, just as no one can walk away without leaving footsteps in their path. An afterimage also encapsulates a similar tension between the digital and the natural: while the screen presents the image, it is our own eyes and minds that maintain, and many times subvert, the mix of shadows and colors left behind. This line between the constructed and the inherent continues to blur in the wake of rapidly accelerating technology, the longevity of man-made appliances that are beginning to outlive us, and the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence. Whether it is telephone poles punctuating grassy fields, phones becoming vessels for conversation, or AI transforming from a novel invention to a commonality, we must recognize how intertwined our legacy is becoming with that of the machines we create and set free. Along with a discovery of who we are beyond our physical presence, the voices in these pages explore how that relates to the digital and natural worlds we live in. Across the diverse forms of student creativity ranging from prose and poetry to video and sculpture, you will find a multitude of answers to the question of what emerges from tests of time and change. While many artists emphasize the endurance of our feelings and emotions, others find it in the relationships we sustain, break and reform. Some see the dichotomy between constance and transition in the cycle of the moon and sun, and still more find it in the endlessly repetitive routines that are meant to take us somewhere further. As you peruse through these pages, we urge you to consider what your own answer may be: what parts of your internal and external realms would stay behind if you leave, and which ones would 2 3
table of contents Poetry: Tired - Lena Linsenmeier 4 9 Time Capsule - Ria Rapaka 11 No Trace of Ghosts - Nina Trujillo 12 Let Me - Caroline Garner 15 autumn - Hailey Mayo 20 When the Dust Settles - Caroline Garner 22 Pen Pal - Matthew Guzman 32 Rain Dance - Lena Linsenmeier 35 Algorithmic - Hailey Mayo 39 Because Nothing Gold Can Stay - Aetna Lin 41 aging - Hailey Mayo 42 Martyr - Aizah Zaidi 53 Radon Valley’s Fresh Strawberry Jam - Lily Day 54 How I Hate AI - Ulysses Hsu 57 Hand Scars - Lena Linsenmeier 58 Quixotic - Matthew Guzman 64 where am i? - Hailey Mayo 67 The Ballad of a Bloodthirsty Beast - Ria Rapaka 72 Fifteen, Twenty, Twenty-five - Riya Rao 76 Villanelle from Wudu - Aizah Zaidi 78 Away - Lena Linsenmeier 80 i miss our skeletons - Tessa Hansen 82 Pour Toujours à Paris - Sophia Shah 87 Inspired - Lena Linsenmeier 88 Window - Aizah Zaidi 90 Curated Blindness - Bade Usal 94 spotty dog - Gabrielle Kitagawa 106 The Other Side - Kaitlyn Zhang 120 Cheerios - Matthew Guzman 122 Prose: Playing With Fire - Lena Linsenmeier 16 The Girl at the Corner - Lena Linsenmeier 24 The Courage to Be You - Bade Usal 36 Grim - Kaitlyn Zhang 44 What America Looks Like From the Other Side of the World - Athan Chee 68 An Elephant Sitting Still Review - Harrison Youngblood 84 Disquiet - Jerry Dai 98 E. Pluribus Unum - Aizah Zaidi 109 Tic Attack - Lena Linsenmeier 114 124 Ashes of Day - Skye Ljungdahl 130 Dear Younger Me - Blair Shedden Photography: 3 in Me - Luca Riveros 8 We Can’t Go Back - Alex Ronstadt 10 The Surface Lies - Sanjana Teladevalapalli 13 Shell Cave - Andrew Fote 14 Lost in Page - Andrew Fote 15 No me Desamapares Porfa - Victoria Romero 23 5
33 Parallel - Sanjana Teladevalapalli 34 Rainy Day - Davis Ruckman Stairway to Heaven - Reid Arocha FNAF 2 Foxy Jumpscare - Victoria Romero A Florist’s Secret Scene - Isa Atwood Sundown in Florence - Reid Arocha Overgrown - Aetna Lin Mist - Luke Winger Grossmünster - Luke Winger Hidden - Davis Ruckman Serene Asagi - Blair Shedden Another World - Blair Shedden NM - Raj Davis egg - Riley Herring paper - Riley Herring Golden Lining - Blair Shedden The Spiral - Andrew Fote 52 55 Hand Sketches - Anisha Amaravadi 59 56 Looking Glass - Anisha Amaravadi 74 63 Blinded - Anisha Amaravadi 75 65 Sorry Baby, I Forgot - Anisha Amaravadi Painting: Archived - Alison Mitton Currency of Growing Up - Alison Mitton Carving Time - Alison Mitton Cubist Ourcast - Alison Mitton is she pretty on the inside? - Gabrielle Kitagawa 131 Digital/Video Art: 79 Head in the Clouds - Polina Terentyeva 27 86 What You Watch - Emmie Woodall 37 95 The One That Got Away - Sophia Chin 60 104 Nōkan - Raj Davis 62 105 Reverse Exposure - Bryce Chang 77 107 Decay - Polina Terentyeva 81 112 Jeongchae - Sophia Chin 92 113 Drowning in Procrastination - Ari Winston 96 121 Burn Me Into Your Retinas - Madeline Benes 119 123 Suspense - Lena Linsenmeier 128 127 Composite - Caitlin Gyselen 89 Gazing - Anisha Amaravadi 69 Matinee - Raj Davis Drawing: 51 66 The Gorge - Andrew Fote 6 Light - Piper Fink 28 29 30 31 83 Sculpture: Inferna - Savannah Brents 19 Afterimage - Aizah Zaidi 21 Nature is Balanced - Ana Henners-Grainger 38 Breaking the Box - Alison Mitton 43 Where Nature Falls Freely - Ana Henners-Grainger 91 7
Lena Linsenmeier, 11th Grade The world wavers. Behind my eyes are swaths of cotton, Meant to cure, Instead pushing everything Painfully out of place. It takes effort To make myself keep seeing When I would rather invite the darkness Back to purge me of this aching In my bones, My lungs, My brain, That has become my whole essence. For no matter how much chocolate sludge I pour down my throat, No matter how loud I turn up the music, I simply cannot feel anything else. Wouldn’t rest be so nice? “3 in Me” Luca Riveros, 12th Grade 8 9
Ria Rapaka, 9th Grade “We Can’t Go Back” for being remembered by the universe The only essence of me left is enough to water my plant of purpose. will be a smile in a photograph, impossible to understand years later. And I’ll hold hands with Mars, reminisce with Saturn, As time passes by be remembered by the stars, and water flows and be flows, an insignificant spec of dust and flows back again, to everyone dust will find homes who will be in the same position as I am in things I used to love so dearly. soon enough. And like time and seasons, I am a forgotten scrap of history. And there will be a day where someone says my name for the last time. And then no one will remember me except the universe and the sun that used to light up my days so bright and the moon, that shoved away loneliness on countless nights. Even when water flows, and flows back again I will still be home in the arms of sunlight while its rays dance on my skin, and the moon will tell me how much I’ve grown. Its hands will rest on my shoulder, and they will leave a mark that lasts for eternity. I’ll smile, Alex Ronstadt, 11th Grade 10 11
Nina Trujillo, 9th Grade A pale ghost Travels through the soft snow, leaping across a vast white sea It leaves faint tracks The only evidence it was once there The imprint is shaped like a flower, With four petals surrounding the pistil The ghost had floated towards the forest Carried away with the arctic breeze With it, it took any idea Of where it longed to be The breeze turned into howling wind, It picked up ice crystals Which shrouded the flowers Covering any vestige of them, They became nothing more than a ghost, In an Arctic that was full of them 12 “The Surface Lies” Sanjana Teladevalapalli, 9th Grade 13
Let me be desired Let me be rare Let me be coveted Like the old with their hair Caroline Garner, 12th Grade Let me be loved Let my heart be adored Let my presence be wanted Like a boat being shored. Let my morals stay constant. Let my judgement be wise Let my spirit glide free Taken by cerulean sky. Let my absence be jarring Let my scent linger on Let my memories created Tell more beautiful songs. Let my essence run deep Let my concentrate age Let my bone fall to ashes “Shell Cave” Andrew Fote, 9th Grade 14 Let my spirit be uncaged “Lost in Page” Andrew Fote, 9th Grade 15
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