The Art of the Royvelope

Roy Arenella usually sends me examples of his photo/cards in the mail, so I see his enveloped art less frequently, so let us now praise royvelopes by admiring their features:

Postage stamps

Roy collects mint stamps, so that he has a good collection of emotive and expressive stamps to use, enough stamps for any situation. On this page, Roy includes three "LOVE" stamps, including the classic Robert Indiana eight-cent. Why? Because a central feature of the royvelope is

Back-reference

Roy is constantly referring back to letters of mine, cards of mine, or--most frequently--blog entries of mine. The three "LOVE" stamps are his message to me that he read my brief entry on the most famous visual poem ever.

Handprinting

Roy always handprints the addresses on his envelopes. His hand is simple, yet solid. There is an ineffable innocent quality to the hand, one I can't quite put into words, but one that I always find endearing. The hand defines the man.

Rubberstamping

The royvelope usually includes some piece of rubberstamp printing. In this case, the stamping is a heart, a re-reference back to the visual poem, "LOVE."

Contents

Just as an envelope is a carrier of information, a royvelope is a carrier of art. This envelope includes a letter that focuses on my blog entry that discusses "documental structure." This was an entry from September, and Roy has been thinking about it for a while and suggests a couple other such structures that visual poems can emulate: "cattle brand marks & ham radio QSL cards" (the latter being ham radio operators' calling cards). Roy then fills the envelope with examples and musings, color xeroxes, handwriting in marker and pencil, newspaper clippings, and on. But there is no chaos to the contents; Roy has arranged them thematically.

It is an honor to receive such gifts of insight and art.


Roy Arenella, [A Classic Royvelope] (23 Oct 2004)
un violon d'ingres