Scott Sparling

“Music, of course, starting with late-1960s Bob Seger, but also the alt-country-trance music of Jesse Sykes, and Jon Dee Graham—anything with power and yearning to it. News clippings of derailed freight cars [2]—aerial shots that mix disaster and beauty. A canning jar filled with blood-red and turquoise beads, because of the way they mix, and also the sound they make. After Catmandu [3], a collage by Andrea Maki, because it’s so complicated and fragile. A magazine photo [4] of a woman with eyes that are stunned and crazy, for the same reason. The Color Acid Test [5] blotter replica I bought from Zane Kesey. The novels of Robert Stone, especially certain sections of Dog Soldiers. Jim Harrison’s poetry. Standing close to a train and listening. My tree house as it gets dark, particularly the corners that don’t meet and boards that are uneven. Travel. And sleep. Turning off all the lights and going to bed—that almost always works for me.”
—Scott Sparling, author of Wire to Wire (Tin House Books, 2011)