On November 10, 2012, Sam Hamill and Ian Boyden joined together to do an interview on Hamill’s chapbook Border Songs, as well as Habitations, a collaboration between the poet, Sam, and the painter, Ian. Fewer than a dozen copies were made of the book, although in the interview Boyden recommends you forget whatever notions you hold about what a book is and can be. About 3 feet high and 10 inches wide, the cover made of fossilized maple, this book was the result of the organic collaboration between these two artists. Each page was a painting done by Boyden, using his typically atypical pigments and binders such as carbon, shark teeth, meteorites, and fresh water pearls, with the text of Hamill’s poem etched into the painting by laser. In addition to the interview, at the Spring Street Center on the corner of 15th and Spring in Seattle’s Cherry Hill neighborhood, Boyden spoke and took a Q&A about the collaboration and his methods, and Hamill gave a reading from his chapbook Border Songs, published by Word Palace Press.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Sam Hamill was the Founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press and author of more than forty volumes of poetry, essays, and celebrated translations from ancient Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Latin, and Estonian.

Ian Boyden is an artist and writer currently working in the Blue Mountains southeast of Walla Walla, Washington. His practice in paintings and books, displays a fundamental drive to link the literary, material, and visual imagination. He makes his own paints and inks from unusual materials such as meteorites, shark teeth, and freshwater pearls. His work has been exhibited widely and is found in many public collections including Reed College, the Portland Art Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Suzhou Museum. Website: https://ianboyden.com/

To hear the original audio, Hamill’s reading, and Boyden’s talk, see the archival post here.

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