Transformations (Paperback)

TRANSFORMATIONS: Wood/metal/stone/sundry celebrates the discovery of, and connection with, found objects that hide within landscapes of urban decay and nature. Objects that, when revealed, stand as testaments to time, place, and the transformative effects of nature and the elements. Thirty-eight contributors (including Sharon Hashimoto, dan raphael, Priscilla Long, Arlene Naganawa, Paul Hunter, Aubrey Birdwell, Anna Odessa Linzer) share their appreciation for “weathered and/or broken, bent, decayed, or rusted objects” that have inspired their poems and essays. The book has 59 full color illustrations of found objects.

In a world torn apart with global wars and machine stealth, I’m craving art full of small things. It’s comforting to settle on a board, a rock, or a piece of a machine and imagine it floating in a borderless past that I might try to fill in. This book restores that joy of speculation and imagination by focusing on the materials that these small things are made of—wood/metal/stone/sundry—and then regarding their changes and transformations. That’s what the writing conjures here—the specifics that lead readers to reanimate their own surroundings. With each voice and sight line of the objects in Transformations you can feel a long progression. You can also sense that the artists who chose these artifacts are considering their own places in the world.

Objects here—smoothed by the sea, oxidized by dirt and salt, windblown and scalded—are becoming new versions of themselves. Shifts appear in slivers and glimpses, and the poems and prose pieces transform our views of what these things might be. Each object is en route from its once-use into a new context of being placed as art.

Enjoy the winding road that you will take while reading TRANSFORMATIONS—where the varied connections people have made with found objects are explored. So many of the objects written about describe the long-term relationships we make with found objects, both aesthetic and symbolic. Often stretching back decades to childhood, these objects act as protectors, talismans, and road maps of where we have been and where we are still going.

Scott Martin, a Northwest native, grew up in Normandy Park, Washington. He is an artist, illustrator, and proprietor of Tin Hat Novelties, the originators and makers of National Waffle Association and Jesus Shaves products, along with a host of other original novelty items. He has been Raven Chronicles' art director for many years; in the 1990s he wrote an online column, "Art Is Where You Find It," and interviewed many Seattle-area artists. Most notably his "Integrating Style with Substance: An Interview with Abe Blashko" in Raven's Stealing Light Anthology-is considered a definitive source on Mr. Blashko's artistic life in early Seattle and beyond. Scott's drawings and paintings have been exhibited in Seattle at the Globe Cafe, House, and Free Mars. Between 2015-2018 he curated art for the Hopvine Pub on Seattle's Capitol Hill. Cat attendant to thirteen cats over the years, animal welfare advocate, former record store owner, and lifelong vinyl junkie. He spent forty years in the sign trade as a sign painter, installer, and designer. In 1998, he completed his most visible sign project known as the Jackson Street Colonnade which consisted of revitalizing by hand painting thirty-three Interstate 5 (I-5) support columns with Asian carp and dragonfly designs (by artist Fire Cruxent).

Phoebe Bosché is a cultural activist, and has been managing editor of The Raven Chronicles literary organization/Raven Chronicles Press since 1991. Since 1984, she has organized literary events and readings in the Pacific Northwest. In 1985, she co-founded, along with poet Roberto Valenza, "Alternative To Loud Boats," a literary and musical festival which ran for ten years in various venues in Seattle. She was co-editor of Swale Magazine (with Valenza) and one of the many co-editors of SkyViews, a monthly literary publication of Red Sky Poetry Theater, in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Her spoken word poems appear in various publications, including the anthology Durable Breath, Contemporary Native American Poetry (Salmon Run Publishing Co., Anchorage, Alaska), and Open Sky. She is a full-time editor and book designer. Her favorite poet is Archy, the cockroach, whose muse is Mehitabel, the alley cat.

Nora Martin is an author of fiction and nonfiction for both young readers and adults. Her novel A Perfect Snow was a 2003 Pacific Northwest Book Awards (PNBA) winner. Previous books include The Stone Dancers (1995, Atheneum Books for Young Readers) and The Eagle's Shadow (1997, Scholastic Press). She feels that all of the inspiration for her writing begins in landscape and the influence it has on our lives. She is an adjunct instructor at Montana State University and a retired school librarian. She lives in Bozeman, Montana, with her husband Andy and their two cats. She is currently writing nonfiction for adults.