About the collage and process: The base image is a picture of a graffiti-ed hotel wall in a ghost town somewhere between San Diego, CA, and Roswell, NM. I was living in a van with my partner at the time. We were rootless then, just following the heat and sun away from the Pacific NW. We spent months visiting friends, exploring the country, and sleeping in state parks or truck stops. Having recently finished college and having passed up a full time literary job in favor of pursuing dreams and excitement, this message of survival that I stumbled upon in the desert spoke to me. I suppose it still does; all poets could use a bit of encouragement from time to time. Like poetry, the process of creating the collage is a bit muddled and layered for me. The idea of survival, especially when rootless and facing obstacles, is what brought forth the added images. The palms on the coast, the bridge leading out of it, and the boat adrift on the other side represent a journey and a searching of some kind. Which is really what I think poetry is about, a connecting of dots and an exploration of experience and ideas.
Kelly Jones spent her formative years living in her Grandpa's house in Apex, NC. Every few years she picks up and moves and has called the following places home: Raleigh, Seattle, Asheville, Paros (Greece), Carrboro, New Orleans, Greensboro, and (currently) Durham. A former college instructor, literary magazine editor, event organizer, and service industry worker extraordinaire, she currently pays most of her bills by working as a volunteer coordinator, adult literacy educator, and writer. Her first chapbook, Worry the Dead, will be out this summer. Her lease will also be up this summer, so she is taking suggestions on where to move next.