Saturday, November 27, 2004

kiyotei's coyote, Coyotyl

kiyotei sends me another mailart card built upon the façade and backend of another John Wayne postage stamp postcard. He has added a big red star to the Duke's cap, a sticker image of a huge thresher harvesting golden grain, and notations along the edges of the stamp, each scallop-shaped perforation filled with a single letter or blank space. Starting with the north side and moving clockwise, we receive these messages:

ABU AMMARION [Okay, lots of punning in here. Keep in mind that Wayne's real first name is the manly "Marion."]

nicotiana tabacum [Easy enough.]

Morrison [Wayne's real surname; his parents were alliterators.]

CHISHOLM TRAILMIX [Possible new tradename.]

The reverse of the card appears below. kiyotei has returned a copy of the "Seneca Carving" postage stamp I sent to him with my last mailing...but he's modified it again, given it a title, and turned it into a small comics panel! The rest of the card is decorated lushly. (I'm always amazed by how kiyotei turns a simple card into something of a mailart grabbag on two surfaces.)

We have the address label to me (which he has turned into a cute firetruck responding to an emergency, which commemorates the Fire Department of New York [FDNY]), a Matangi Island Coffee Cat stamp, and a few glyphs made to resemble cattle brands. The green one clearly spells out "John," the red one appears to be "Wayne," but any particular meaning (beyond shape) of the other two escapes me.


kiyotei, "Coyote-Eating Man" (16 Nov 2004)

un violon d'ingres

4 comments:

kiyotei & aimee said...

Take notice of the letter "O" in the green John and follow the pattern to the red word. This encoded word, although quite camoflaged here, appears elsewhere (undeciphered) on this side of the card.

Geofhuth said...

kiyotei,

"coyotyl" it is! I'd considered (earlier) that it was "kiyotei" but I couldn't quite make that work. Thanks for the exercise!

Geof

kiyotei & aimee said...

Thanks for caring enough to give it another go.
I hoped the "C" would be a little clearer and look a bit like the one on a Coke can, but it came out kinda flat.

Great batch of new stuff here on the blog. You've had a busy week at the post.

Bravo for all your efforts. qbdp is truly an amazing journal.

The year of the mailart blog is upon us!

Geofhuth said...

kiyotei,

Interestingly, my forced "Wayne" reading was based on reading the word starting at its opposite end!

Geof