Who is Jeff Cochran?

Story and photos by Vanessa White

He sits serenely on a chair, hand-made from a tree stump. Is it the shining of the sun that gives warmth to the atmosphere or his radiant soul emitting generations of cultural wealth?

Jeff Cochran occupies an in-law, third generation home in Plattsburgh, NY. The Colorado born native spends his time as an artist, poet, Reiki specialist, husband, and father (not necessarily in order of importance).

“I’ve always been a poet,” says Jeff. He recognized his gift at 14 while attending high school in Boulder where he occasionally took bike riding and hitchhiking trips farther west. It was his perspective on the world, revealed through his art and poetry that drew his wife, Mary, to him.

“I’ve known him for twenty-eight years,” says Mary. “We’ll be twenty-five years married this summer.” Mary says that they were both artists and worked together in a local deli restaurant. Their mutual interest led to them being close friends. “I was a painter when we met,” she says. Jeff and Mary would work together and sometimes he wrote poems over her paintings.

“It’s nice to be silent and be totally comfortable”

When Jeff and Mary were ready to settle down, they moved to Plattsburgh to be closer to Mary’s family. Raising a family was not the “typical,” traditional style as displayed on older television shows like Leave It to Beaver.   Jeff remained in the home, while Mary went to work. “I do all the money,” says Mary.

While at home with his children, Jeff was allotted time to work on his art. He built the Fox Hill studio behind the family’s home where he offers Reiki healing and various workshops, has books, photographs, totem poles, and plants on display. Jeff began using his time to reflect on the discovery of his Native American heritage at age 30, which gave Jeff an alternative form of perception. Through reading and research, he became connected to the Native American struggle. As a result, he began to better understand the plight of women and African American’s in the United States.

“With discoveries come responsibilities,” says Jeff. “I worked in the prisons for five years. They [inmates] taught me a lot.” Jeff began to draw comparisons between his home and the jail cells that housed the inmates, concluding that freedom was questionable in both instances. Situations like this have allowed Jeff to recognize the similarities between himself and people that have historically been socially separated and labeled as different. “This is a poet’s job,” he says. “It’s the ability to be spiritual in a public place.”

Jeff’s ability to relate to people on a deeper level was not easily noticed by Plattsburgh State Senior Ilyssa Brown. Brown says she met Jeff while he was working at the Co-op in downtown Plattsburgh when she first entered school four years ago. “It took me two years to be friendly with him,” she says. “He’s so quiet. I can be around him and not have to say anything. It’s like we have conversations without speaking.”

Ilyssa began having a closer friendship with Jeff when they worked on the Earth Day Parade in 2008, where a group of people strolled (and/or danced rather) through the City of Plattsburgh in puppet costumes they had created for the event. Once the parade had ended, Ilyssa says she went awhile without seeing Jeff but they reunited again for this year’s Earth Day celebration.

Jeff describes the time after the parade as an “emotional collapse.” He says that there is an excitement that builds up prior to the event, then the climax of the event; when the parade is over, there is a down period left for reflection and the question of what to do next.

“It’s the ability to be spiritual in a public place”

Maybe traveling? Mary says she wants to travel more but Jeff has no interest in it. “That doesn’t mean I don’t make him,” she says. Mary says that they have taken family trips across the country and flown to Washington state to visit Jeff’s parents.

Mary says that Jeff is alone much of the time. “He doesn’t read the paper or watch the news. He gets current events through me.” She describes Jeff as someone who lives in the moment. “I think more about the future and its possibilities than he does,” she says.

“Follow those little moments of intuition,” Jeff advises, still sitting in his tree chair. He gazes at the sky and motions at a crow occupying an electric wire. There is silence for a time before the crow begins cawing.

“It’s nice to be silent and be totally comfortable,” says Brown.

Have you met Jeff Cochran?