qbdp: the mailartworks: October 2006

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Scentsing Scomething (qbdp # 117)

qbdp # 117, “S(¢)ent” (“Obverse” 23 Oct 2006)
Westin Governor Morris, Room 401, Morristown, New Jersey

Today was a full day of meetings at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, but I wrew a large number of fidgetglyphs as I listened to the talks today. This was good, because I've been carrying a set of five notecards (with envelopes) and “Pôeme” perfume cards (with the scent sprayed on them) for a few weeks now--just looking for a way to used them.

qbdp # 117, “S(¢)ent” (“Reverse” 23 Oct 2006)
The richness of the day's fidgetglyphing gave me the chance to use a few of the fidgetglyphs for this one project. I used “S(¢)ent” on the back of the envelope, just below the premlip. I wrew “pöemot” (Philippe Billé’s translation of “pwoermd”) on the back of the perfume card. And the “message” inside the notecard was the three-line fidgetglyph “paper.” Along with these items, I included a single penny in each envelope, to complete the scent/sent/cent pun.

The lucky recipients of “S(¢)ent” (qbdp # 117) were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

Thursday, October 26, 2006

The Archives of American Mailart (qbdp # 116)

qbdp # 116, "arcH'IVE" (26 Oct 2006)
Westin Governor Morris, Room 401, Morristown, New Jersey
Today, I drove with a carload of people to the fall meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (of which I'm the chair). Although I had a long day of meetings (from 2 pm until 10 pm, with just enough of a break for a jaunt out for dinner), I did end up wrawing a few fidgetglyphs appropriate for the occasion. Late at night, I took one these, affixed it to six postcards of watercolor paper, and used my new portable watercolor set to create my first mailart using watercolors. A pretty little thing (to my eye, at least).

The lucky recipients of this small mailing of "arHI'VE" (qbdp # 116) were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. RF Côté

6. qbdp

Since I created the image on the front of this postcard, I saved the back for personalized messages, and I actually wrote a real note (rather than a dashed one) to each recipient (save, of course, the faux recipient, qbdp).

un violon d'ingres

Monday, October 23, 2006

Seeing in the Dark (qbdp # 115)

qbdp # 115, "S23N" (23 Oct 2006)
Marriott New York at the Brooklyn Bridge, Room 1514, Brooklyn, New York

Today was a busy day. We had a big event at work, I had to leave that as it was ending to catch a train that ended up being late, so that I arrived in New York City with barely enough time to make it to a screening of a student TV project my daughter Erin had worked on. Afterwards, I took two of her friends and her out to dinner, then I stopped at The Strand and bought a few books before I descended into the subway again and took a train across the water to Brooklyn, where I arrived in my room just before 10 pm to spend the night in Kings County for the first time ever.

I immediately created a little colorglyph and began to create cards. Originally, I'd planned to make 23 cards, since this was the 23rd of October and 23 appears within the colorglyph. As I worked on who I would send the card, however, I noticed that I owed many more mailartists a mailing (since I've been so unbusy in mailart since last fall), so I decided to use all the cards I had (35) to send out cards. This ended up being an enormous amount of work, but I finished and have about a half a pound of postcards to mail around the world. Luckily, I picked these postcards up for free at a rest area on the Northway last Friday.

The many lucky recipients of "S23N" (qbdp # 117) are as follows:

1. Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. Ruud Janssen

6. Reed Altemus

7. A.A. Berry

8. Wayne Alan Brenner

9. Pati Bristow

10. RF Côté

11. Jimi Camero

12. richard canard

13. Ryosuke Cohen

14. frips

15. Ficus strangulensis

16. fat red ant

17. Luc Fierens

18. Haje Holmström

19. Jassy Lupa

20. Jim Leftwich

21. D. Mask

22. This Compost

23. Guy r. Beining

24. Mick Boyle

25. John M. Bennett

26. endwar

27. Billy Mavreas

28. Ross Priddle

29. Carol Stetser

30. Guido Vermeulen

31. Renée Wagemans

32. Pablo Wright

33. Lynn Jr & Elizabeth Zois

34. Steve Dalachinsky

35. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

Sunday, October 15, 2006

kite tail press # 15

Jennifer Hill-Kaucher, A Fall Leaves Variation (22 Sep 2006)
Dan Waber mails me this card showing the graceful verbo-visual work of Jennifer Hill-Kaucher. My favorite of the variations so far (and much more so than my own attempts), this is a beautiful example of the power of the printer's fist in action.

un violon d'ingres

Simmering

Jim Leftwich, Rubberstamp Collage (Jul 2006)
In a mailing in the middle of September, Jim Leftwich sent me this colorful rubberstamp collage of image and text, along with a few other such creations.

un violon d'ingres

An Almost Invisible Mantra

Dan Waber, "oM" (2006)
I've had to change the color of this card, making it seem multi-hued, to make the M in "oM" visible. In the original, the reader almost has to imagine the M, which is block-printed on white in white.

un violon d'ingres

Letters Turning Back into Shapes

Roy Arenella, "Improvised Constructions" (19 Aug 2006)"
Roy shows us in card # 256 USPC, which he sent as thanks for an exhibit catalog I mailed him, that letters, which once were drawings, can become drawings again.

un violon d'ingres

Pointing Hands

Roy Arenella, "THEM vs. US" (28 Jul 2006)
Roy can find profound puns and make good conceptual use of them better than anyone else I know. Here a wedge of printer's fists points right at a larger printer's fist, pointing back--all suggesting conflict. But, we learn, that these accusing hands can also come into a handshake that avoids consternation.

On the back of this card (numbered 235C) Roy has rubberstamped a two-fingered, one-handed piece sign in his pseudo-cancellation mark, to continue the trope.

un violon d'ingres

When an Archives is an Ark for Everyone but the Builder

Roy Arenella, "ARKHIVE = HOME" (2 May 2006)
Roy put together this card as a comment to a blog posting of mine at dbqp: "Documenting a Life." Here, Roy, connects with my idea that an archives (which, to him, is both an ark that floats us out of danger and a hive of activity) is a home, the a set of files is a measure of, and the exact equal to, a life. (Roy also notes "How much better to make this card than to click on the 'comment' button" on the blog.)

Since I wrote that post at the very beginning of May, I've decided I have to move a huge percentage of my papers out of my house, at least 52 cubic feet, maybe more. (Since I've worked on these papers I've developed a better estimate of the quantity of records I hold.) So now I will be giving away my papers, starting actually today, when I'll part with ten cubic feet (ten banker's boxes, to most) of my correspondence, which includes lots of mailart and other correspondence. I'm giving away my memory to make sure it isn't totally lost.

un violon d'ingres

kite tail press # 11

endwar, "fall leaves" (another variation) (2006)
This is another fall leaves variation by endwar for kite tail press' larger "Fall Leaves Variations."

un violon d'ingres

The Fewer Words Said, The Better

Roy Arenella, "FEWER WORDS" (1 May 2006)
This is Roy's card # 125 cx p/c for the year 2006.

un violon d'ingres

kite tail press # 6

Dan Waber, "Prototypes of Punctuation for the Translation of Dreamed Poems # 2 (for Márton Koppány)" (2006)

The second in a series of invented prototypes of punctuation marks, created for Márton Koppány, the great Hungarian conceptual poet.

un violon d'ingres

kite tail press # 5

Dan Waber, "fall leaves # 9" (2006)
The ninth fall leaves variation by Dan Waber, but kite tail press is putting out many by others as well.

un violon d'ingres

kite tail press # 2

Dan Waber, "Big Blue Apostrophe, for Tod (Big Blue Comma for everyone else)" (2006)
This great blue comma is part of a very limited edition (of 20) from kite tail press.

un violon d'ingres

I Can't Stamp Samuel Beckett, I Can Stamp Samuel Beckett

frips, "S. beckett" (22 Apr 2006)
This card from frips is a simple eraser carving print of Samuel Beckett sewn onto a piece of illustrated cardboard. In case we couldn't figure out that this print is from an eraser carving, she has sewn a little label onto the other side of the card: "GUM/I love/eraser/carvings/fripspost2006."

un violon d'ingres

eresistante is feudal

Haje Holmström, “sistantepo” (29 Mar 2006)
This is my first card from Haje Holmström, and it presents a nice little concrete poem that I can't read at all. Still working on my Finnish.

un violon d'ingres

Sent and Re-seived

Billy Mavreas, "SENT" (2006)
Sometime this year (either on the 1st of May or the 5th of January), Billy Mavreas sent me this stamped cent, asking with the coined if what he had sent had been received. I now report that it has.

un violon d'ingres

How He Sees Poetry

Roy Arenella, "Re: Poetry" (3 May 2006)
Roy always prefers a poetry of the eyes, almost distrusting sound, so he translates terms referring to music into terms referring to writing, as he does here on ccard # 226 C.

un violon d'ingres

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Welcoming Me Back

Roy Arenella, "Self-Portrait as the Letter 'i' (with Tipping Tittle)" (6 Sep 2006)
This photocard arrived with good words from Roy on my return to the world of mailart, which coincides to some degree with his return to the darkroom, after an 18-month absence. This is card # 378P/C.

un violon d’ingres

Postflux Posted

Reed Altemus, Postflux 15 Artistamps (18 Sep 2006)
Received along with an interesting article in the Portland paper about Reed. How in the world did they find a journalist who understands Fluxus?

un violon d’ingres

kite tail press # 14

endwar, "fall leaves" (second version) (ca Jul 2006)
un violon d’ingres

A Memory of a Saying of Ian Hamilton Finlay

Roy Arenella, "That Which We Cannot Speak We Must Construct" (13 Jul 2006)
This is card # 215C.

un violon d’ingres

croxhapox

frips, "what about croxhapox?" (10 Jul 2006)
This card is a mailart call.

un violon d’ingres

kite tail press # 13

Dan Waber, "yes, love" (29 Jun 2006)
un violon d’ingres

Classic Concrete

endwar, "Eye/I" (22 Jun 2006)
Only endwar can sit around and figure out such a perfect minimalist conceptual poem. I'm ashamed I haven't this ability, even though I know how to write each of these words (except for "I" in Chinese).

un violon d’ingres