Saturday, January 19, 2008

To Knit the Net of Relations Tightly and Clearly and Visibly

Roy Arenella, "My Last Mailbox in Brooklyn" (30 Sep 1991)

Every human being is a strand in a web of connections. The first web is genealogical, an unavoidable and geometric regression of ancestors that, in some way, overlaps the ancestors of everyone else. The next is of acquaintances, a web that functions similarly but which is much less ordered and unpredictable. Plenty of other webs exist as well, such as webs of ideas. We are all tied together, whether we want to be or not.

And Roy Arenella, mailartist, is a node on many many webs and continues to find ways to tie me to new webs. After moving a few years ago to Greenwich (pronounced "Green Witch") in Washington County, New York, he has met just about everyone in his small town. This has allowed him to develop ties through him to people I know: David Greenberger (of Duplex Planet and NPR commentating fame), Gary Saretzky (the archivist for Monmouth County, New Jersey), Al Cormier (the Village of Salem historian), and, most recently, to Art Reinhart (who works with me at the New York State Archives).

Roy Arenella, Note to Art Reinhart (13 Jan 2008)

Roy met Art recently, and sent him a card, asking Art to give it to me briefly so as make the quote that entitles this entry "active in practice." And so Art has, and so I've completed the web and documented it. Let me point out some of the art of this card to Art. First, the blue web he has stamped on the card. Second, the two unscanned stamps he's added to it: one commemorating the National Archives (since Art and I both work at an archives) and one one John Trumbull, American Artist (because Roy sent the card to Art and wrote about art on the card).

Connections::Art

un violon d'ingres