Today was one of those surprising days when all mailart received isn't from Roy Arenella.
Item 1 (from j0llyr0ger)
I've seen evidence of j0llyr0ger--note that the O's in his name are zeroes--for at least a couple of months now, and he has recently launched a blog where he displays some visual poetry of his. (I'd give the link but I'm away from home, I don't have my bookmarks handy, and I'm dealing with a particularly slow dialup connection.)
First, I'm amazed that this card made it to me. I would have expected my address to fall away during its trek from Alton, Illinois. j0llyr0ger has artfully torn a rectangle of graph paper out of a larger rectangle of graph paper and attached it to the back of a piece of card. He appears to have used a gluestick, and a little more than half the sheet of paper is flapping free of the card. Atop this loosened sheet, j0llyr0ger has glued his address (j0llyr0ger, POB 493, Alton, IL 62002-0493) and a black hand-fingers open in a Vulcan greeting--with an eye staring from its palm. Maybe it is some kind of Masonic or Rosicrucian symbol, though I am not sure. j0llyr0ger mailed this card on 29 Jun 2004.
The obverse of the card is a "text-based concept schematic", which begins with an "amble" and where three lines radiate out from "radial," most actions run through the wonderful word "symbiont," and it all ends in "function."
j0llyr0ger, "AMBLE CORE"
Item 2 (from Roy Arenella)
Dated 30 June 2004, this card from Roy is his 275th mailing for the year, so he took the time to send out two other mailings between mailings to me. The card includes a 15-cent "Photography" stamp and a 15-cent seeing-eye-dog stamp, because this photocard is about seeing and photography. The pseudo-cancellation includes a rubberstamping of two of the great pyramids, two frequently photographed objects.
The obverse of the card includes a small visual pwoermd, that we could interpret as "LeVeL" or "LeYeL"--because both readings are intended. The middle letter is ambiguous, hermaphroditic. The entire poem suggests a rewriting of Ronald Johnson's pwoermd "eyeleveleye." Roy ends the front of the card with a quote about seeing by Gerhard Richter. Roy doesn't make clear if he considers the pwoermd no more than an element of this larger construction, and he does not do what he usually does: provide a date of creation for the piece.
Roy Arenella, "LeVeL" or "LeYeL" (nd)
Since Roy doesn't leave comments on my weblogs, he explains himself and responds to a blog entry of mine on this card.
Geof, (re: dbqp entry 6/27/04) I think color is as much a "problem" for photographers [NB: Roy sees himself as primarily a photographer] as for visual poets. When a well-known photographer switched from black & white to color, she was asked why. "Because the world is in color." True enough. But later I remdinded myself that the brain--our terminus instrument used to scrutinize, absorb & order that multicolored world--is not many-hued. Its working parts are themselves relatively neutral in color, "grey matter", between "light" & "dark"; or maybe like the color of old bones (the color of "structure" itself?). I mentioned all this to Martine; she interrupted, adding "....And as far as I can tell I dream in black & white, don[']t you?"
Creation of qbdp #12
Tonight I wrew a tri-color fidgetglyph (entitled "tripl3ts")on the face of each of ten old acidic postcards displaying etchings of famous addresses from old New Orleans. I edited the note saying "PLACE ONE CENT STAMP HERE" to say "PLACE ONE 23-CENT STAMP HERE." On the obverse of the card, I used two colors of pencil to add highlights to two discrete sections of each different etching. I also added the title of the fidgetglyph with yellow pen here, leaving a mark that remains invisible in almost all contexts.
Geof Huth, "tripl3ts" (2004)
These are the recipients of "tripl3ts":
1/10 Ruth and Marvin Sackner
2/10 Bob Grumman
3/10 Roy Arenella
4/10 j0llyr0ger
5/10 kiyotei
6/10 Scott McDonald
7/10 Philip Vaughan-Williams
8/10 Matthew Shindell
9/10 endwar
10/10 qbdp
un violon d'ingres
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