Professor shares her life on a family farm and captures the joys of rural living in her art

 

When Roxanne Kaufman was just six, in 1991, a new foal was born on her family farm in Edon, Ohio.

“She fell in love with that foal,” said Barbara Fogel, who calls her daughter Rox. “She said, ‘I want that colt, Mama.’ And I said, ‘Honey, he’s young, and you’re young.’”

“I don’t care. I want him,” Kaufman told her mother. 

“She stood her ground, and we relented,” Fogel said. “She did a lot of the training herself. He was a handful, but she went ahead and showed him and worked with him and did real well with him.”

Fogel was impressed with her daughter’s tenacity.

“It really surprised me because she was so young and she’d gotten thrown off,” Fogel said. “He was quite a handful, but she stayed right with it.”

The same drive, sensitivity, and love for creation stayed with Kaufman, now in her fourth year as visiting assistant professor of art at Hillsdale College. She splits her time between the college and her farms: one, which she works with her family, and one which she owns herself. When not caring for her horses or romping the woods with her son, Brogan, Kaufman teaches photography and design to her students, specializing in dark-room photography. 

In her office above Markel Auditorium, Kaufman hangs some of her best work: meditative, black-and-white photographs of the rural Midwest. There are portraits of her animals and of her pastors. One of her favorites, she says, is a shot of her son when he was younger, standing by the side of a barn. Wearing frayed cutoff jeans and cowboy boots, Brogan puts his hands on his hips in a sweetly solemn pose. 

“I love rural America,” Kaufman said. “For the first time in our history, more people live in city limits than in rural settings. I have this deep connection to farm life.”

A Midwest native, Kaufman grew up on her family’s horse farm in Ohio, where they raised Morgan horses from 1976 to 2014. Kaufman and her older sister, Victoria, competed in different equestrian disciplines. 

Kaufman received her first camera as a Christmas present in eight-grade.

“From there, she blossomed,” Fogel said. “It didn’t take me long to know what she was after.”

Growing up on a farm fueled Kaufman’s passion for homesteading. 

“I genuinely love to work with the earth and to grow things and to understand how to use them to their fullest capacity,” Kaufman said. “That gardening part came from my dad.”

Kaufman wanted the same life for her 11-year-old son: one with adventures just out the back door. She bought a farm north of Quincy, Michigan in 2012, renovating and cleaning the house and barns. 

“I wanted my son to live a life where he spent his days growing things and playing and being outside,” Kaufman said. “He always has something to do without a lot of effort.”

Kaufman’s day begins before 5 a.m. every morning. 

“I do devotionals, maybe work out a little, and then it’s out to the barn,” Kaufman said. “You just get into this routine where, even though we have 27 animals on our farm, it’s not work. I truly love it.”

Kaufman describes the rhythm of farm life as one of joy and heartache. Brogan, Kaufman says, has learned a lot about life and death. 

“He’s buried his beloved chicken that got killed by a raccoon,” she said. “We’ve had chickens born on the farm, donkeys born on the farm.” 

Farm life has given her family a special resilience, Kaufman says. 

“I always say, there’s gym tough and then there’s farm tough,” Kaufman said. “Farm tough is not only physically strong but mentally and emotionally strong. You have this deep regard for life from beginning to end.”

Though they live six miles from any of Brogan’s friends, Kaufman says her son has plenty of animal companions: chickens, rabbits, a turkey, a goat. She talks about her son constantly, always with a smile in her eyes. 

“When all of his friends are over, I love the showcase of masculinity that happens,” Kaufman said. 

When Brogan and his friends play games like ghosts in the graveyard, Kaufman joins the fun. 

“I will hide in places where they can’t see me, but I can hear their whole conversation,” Kaufman said. “One time he was with Pascal Whalen and he’s like, ‘Come on, bro. Let’s just be men. Let’s just be men and go out into the dark. It’ll be fine.’”

A tomboy herself, Kaufman enjoys being a boy mom. 

“They’re just full of adventure and simplicity,” Kaufman said, “but also protective. There’s no drama.”

Following in his family’s footsteps, Brogan started showing miniature donkeys when he was three. Among other events, he competes and has won prizes in “coon jumping” with his mule, Digger, in which prizes are awarded to the animals who can clear the highest hurdle from a standing position. 

Fogel sees the way her daughter has raised Brogan with the same whimsy she possessed as a child.

“Sometimes she was almost magical because she would be outside playing by herself and she was just totally content, even when she was alone,” Fogel said. “And she’s still that way. She takes her son with her and they go on adventures. They go back along the streams and they watch for deer. It stayed right with her — she never outgrew that.”

Kaufman credits her professional success to her parents. After she attended Goddard College in Vermont for her master’s, Kaufmann returned to the Midwest to teach art. 

“I’ve always been kind of a homebody, so to speak, and I loved the pastoral lifestyle,” Kaufman said. “I have a really strong faith, and when you have a really strong faith you kind of intuitively follow along with God’s 

plan and it works. I graduated with my master’s degree and I had an adjunct position right away. I never went one semester without teaching.”

After alternating between Hillsdale, Spring Arbor University, Trine University, and Jackson College, Kaufman found a more permanent position at Hillsdale College. 

Junior Abigail Cool, who has taken Kaufman for Design and photography classes, admires Kaufman’s intentionality, authenticity, and energy. 

“She is so content with the life she’s built,” Cool said. “It’s very refreshing to hear someone talking about how much they love their life and home.”  

“It’s been beautiful,” Kaufman says of her time at Hillsdale. “I thank God every day because I feel very lucky to have the opportunity.”