Black on Blue: "SKRUVE" (qbdp # 77)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

Taking a few narrow sheets of medium-blue paper, I folded each in three parts, inked some version of a Latin character upon each of the panels of the paper, leaving the recipient with a card to unfold and turn over to read the one enigmatic word it presents: S-K-R-U-V-E.



The recipients of "SKRUVE" were the following:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Karri Kokko

6. frips

7. Jassy Lupa

8. Dan Waber

9. Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

10. RF Côté

11. qbdp

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The Blue Circle and the Red Square: "slit" (qbdp # 76)

On Amtrak Train 267 between New York's Penn Station and the Albany-Rensselaer Station

After a wonderful, pumpkin-dominated meal of Afghani food at the Khyber Pass on St Mark's Place, Nancy and I left our daughter Erin behind and traveled back to the Hotel Pennsylvania (decrepit, save for its grand lobby), where we picked up our bags then walked across the street to Penn Station, where we boarded a train bound for home, and on which I conceived and created this small little mailart mailing, the colophon for which appears on the back of the blue card.


Geof Huth, "slit" (19 Jul 2005)
The lucky few recipients of this card were as follows:

1/6 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/6 Bob Grumman

3/6 Roy Arenella

4/6 Ruud Janssen

5/6 Jennifer Hill-Kaucher

6/6 qbdp

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The Poster as Postcard: "My tremor" (qbdp # 75)

The Hotel Pennsylvania, Room 559, New York, New York

Last Saturday, while in Somerville, Massachusetts, for the VisionSound/SoundVision III exhibit and performance series, I received 100 postcards of my large-scale visual poem, "My tremor," which is designed to be a poster. Though miniaturized for that occasion, the poem still seems to work (but the two green lines of text do not show up as well).

Geof Huth, "My tremor" (2005)
Because these postcards were so glossy, I had to use fine-point Sharpies to cut the addresses and notes into this card--and, even so, the cards seemed to suck all the moisture out of the Sharpies quickly. This caused me to change pens frequently as I wrote on the back of the cards. Fortunately, I included but a one-word message on each card--one designed to be meaningful for the recipient. (In the case of my message to myself this single word was "mine.")

Geof Huth, "My tremor" card (qbdp # 75, back, 18 Jul 2005)
The lucky recipients of this card were as follows:

1/22 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/22 Bob Grumman

3/22 Roy Arenella

4/22 Ruud Janssen

5/22 Dan Waber

6/22 Scott Helmes

7/22 Karri Kokko

8/22 Angela Genusa

9/22 Nadja Sayej

10/22 Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

11/22 RF Côté

12/22 Jassy Lupa

13/22 Fat Red Ant

14/22 frips

15/22 Scott McDonald

16/22 Dees Stribling

17/22 endwar

18/22 kiyotei

19/22 Ficus strangulensis

20/22 Mick Boyle

21/22 Reed Altemus

22/22 qbdp

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Pimeätön: "darkless" (qbdp # 74)

Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston, Room 772, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Today, I gave a reading and performance at The Nave Gallery in Somerville, Massachusetts, as part of the VisionSound/SoundVision III festival of verbo-visual art. We decided to end the day at a hotel filled (well, almost) with other visual poets, and we reserved a room in a hotel right beside the Charles.

Because I was a bit tired, I quickly imagined and invented a small pwoermd encased in a bit of calligraphy. Luckily, I'd brought my entire mailart kit with me, so I pulled out my selection of metal brushes and my walnut ink, and wrote out the word "darkless" twelve times on a set of brown cards.

Geof Huth, "darkless" (16 Jul 2005)
The recipients of this card were as follows:

1/12 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/12 Bob Grumman

3/12 Roy Arenella

4/12 Ruud Janssen

5/12 Dan Waber

6/12 Scott Helmes

7/12 K.S. Ernst

8/12 John M. Bennett

9/12 Karri Kokko

10/12 Christopher Fritton

11/12 RF Côté

12/12 qbdp

After receiving his copy of this card, my friend Karri Kokko wrote a little commentary on this poem (in Finnish). Later, he sent me this translation into English:

Pimeätön (darkless)

A postcard from Geof Huth, sent from Cambridge, Massachusetts, arrived this morning in my mailbox [actually through the mail slot in my front door]. It’s journey took only four days, so we really shouldn’t talk about snail mail here. The ink calligraphy, drawn on a simple brown cardboard with twelve perfectly executed strokes, forms a word that you won’t find in a dictionary but the meaning of which is still possible to put together. The word consists of two parts: first, there’s the English word “dark,” coupled with the addition “-less” [the Finnish equivalences for both given in parenthesis]. Put together they form a word that could be translated into Finnish as either “pimeätön” or “pimeydetön,” [the former being closer to “darkless” and the latter meaning more or less “darknessless”], both again not found in the dictionary, although grammatically perfect Finnish words. Although I myself prefer the form “pimeätön,” the other is actually closer to the original because of its connotation to the word “darkness” (although not meaning its opposite). Do we have a function for a word like this? No, if we are seeking an exact expression for the lack of dark, or darkness (i.e. light, lightness). But as a poem, as a form of poetic expression, Huth’s work is indispensable: it sets your mind in quick motion, forcing you to check the meaning of words and concepts, and patterns of reading a text. Naming things is taking hold of what’s there in the world. It’s enlightening to see how language enlightens our understanding of it, and the world, even if through an impossible negation. And what’s even better, there’s more to come…

The View from Room 772 of the Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts (17 July 2005)
(Photo by Geof Huth)
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Prize-Winning Blog Posts No Mailart Today

Yesterday, I received a notice from Rick Jones (no less) informing me that this weblog has been designated a Cool Site in the Netscape Open Directory "Arts/Visual_Arts/Mail_Art_and_Artistamps/Artists." Along with this recognition, I received a copy of the nomination:

This blog is the BEST "mail art" blog on the network.

The author/artist lists and discusses an enormous amount of correspondence and usually writes a detailed explanation of the art he receives. It is a pleasure to eavesdrop on his visual conversations and read his thoughts about each communication.

His deep, thoughtful interpretations and background data about the artist and artworks are a joy to read.

A little too kind, maybe, but nice to hear. So wouldn't it be nice if I found the time tonight to actually post some of the great mailart I have received recently?

It sure would!

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Stamina and Statement

Today, I received a glossy postcard from jUStin!katKO (the former Justin Katko, but what fun is this name?). This card also serves as an announcement for the SoundVision/VisionSound III: An International Exhibition of Verbo-Visual Artwork & Performance, taking place in Somerville, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), next week. The official opening is July 14th, and the show continues until August 6th, at the Nave Gallery, 155 Powderhouse, Boulevard; phone, 617/625-4823. I'll be there (and performing) on Saturday, the 16th of July. Find more information about the events on this webpage.


jUStin!katKO, "Artist's Stamina/Artist's Statement" (2005)
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Kneeling over Porcelain

(I wonder, sometimes, if I'll remember the meaning of all the puns I stick in the titles of these postings.)

Yesterday, I received a little piece of mailart from a new correspondent, Angela Genusa, who writes,

Saw you great work on the Web & wanted to drop you a note. My site is at: http://regurgitorium.blogspot.com. Hope to hear from you!

Strangely enough, I cannot get that URL to open, though I can tell it exists. I've tried to access it from four different computers (including one that is brand-new today), yet no luck. However, I have discovered that Angela has another blog called Chopped Livre, a great title for a collagist's website!

And here is the interesting little "collage" (one item pasted down then a number of rubberstampings added):


Angela Genusa, "IMPROVING" (30 Jun 2005)
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Watercolored Bubu

On the same day I received a nice thick card from Ruud Janssen (one with a lovely floral pattern--almost like a wallpaper pattern), Ruud also sent me this card, with a delicate almost-geometric watercolor. On the back, he has stamped, in purple, "BuBu" twice.


Ruud Janssen, "BuBu" (18 Jun 2005)
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A Plethora of Fives

Ruud Janssen is too kind to me. He sends me another one of his lovely painted cards, adding to the back of it this note: "Some cards/have lots of fives..." And he is right: The card is numbered 05-125, was created on 25 5 2005 (June 25th, apoChristmas, the midpoint between Christmas and Christmas), and two of the postage stamps end in fives. Quite magical, since five is an important number in my personal "numerology."


Ruud Janssen, 05-125 (25 05 2005)
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To Five on the Fourth: "live" (qbdp # 73)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

Before we left Caroga Lake today, I put together a small mailing commemorating the fourth of July, Independence Day, sort of. Using a set of old acidic postal cards (with purple ditto'd text on the back announcing labor union meetings in the Hudson Valley), I wrew a tiny fidgetglyph on the face of it, festooned the front of the card with enough extra postage to make it through the mails, and added a boring set of collages to the back of the cards, reading: 1. We, 2. Hold, 3. These, 4. Truths, and 5. To Be. Stopping there.


Geof Huth, "live" (4 Jul 2005)
The recipients:

1/5 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/5 Bob Grumman

3/5 Roy Arenella

4/5 Ruud Janssen

5/5 qbdp

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The Progress of Mailart Denied

Back on the ides of June, I decided to spend too much money and create and order some PhotoStamp postage stamps. These are not artist's stamps; they are legal US postage stamps that bear images submitted by people willing to pay far more than the face value of postage stamps. I uploaded one of my small visual poems, ordered a couple of sheets, and was set to go. The result was attractive enough, though I would have preferred to have had more control over the final design.


Geof Huth, "oface," Stamp Design Rejected by Photostamps.com (15 Jun 2005)
Five days later, I received a message from "The PhotoStamps Team." In it, they told me that they had canceled my order because they could not "accept" the image I had submitted. I was dumbfounded and wondered what was wrong with my image. I didn't submit a pornographic image or an image that I didn't hold the copyright for, so I was stumped.

The PhotoStamps Team explained itself:

Please note that currently we are unable to accept images that may be construed as business advertising or notices. Additionally, PhotoStamps will not accept images that may be considered objectionable (e.g.- sexually explicit, obscene, violent, etc.), controversial (e.g.- political, etc.), or newsworthy or notorious (celebrities, politicians, world leaders, etc.). All images must meet our Content Restrictions shown here.

Could they, I wondered, somehow have thoguht my image was somehow business advertising for myself? I read on.

Examples of images that we accept include babies, individuals, couples, families, pets, landscapes, artistic items, and other similar types of images. Any person in a picture should be wearing modest clothing. We are very conservative in our acceptance of images (think of things that were considered appropriate in the 1950s and you are probably safe).

At first, I thought this paragraph was explaining that "artistic items" were not allowed, but this was a misreading on my part, so I was still stumped.

Remember, you must own the rights to the photograph, image, graphic, or logo that you submit and if it is unclear to us that this is the case, we cannot accept your image. Also, if we think your submission will result in a low quality PhotoStamps product (e.g. the image is too dark), we may choose not to process the order.

So maybe they think that I couldn't own the rights to the image. That must be the answer, since the image wasn't too dark. But they won't even tell me the reason:

Please note that owing to privacy concerns, our customer support representatives do not have access to the image(s) that you submitted. As such, they cannot provide details on why your submission did not meet our content guidelines.

So it might be a while before I use my own images on a postage stamp on a piece of mailart. Or maybe I should just try again!

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The Four Major Parts of the Leg: "sigh" (qbdp # 72)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

In a couple of weeks, I'll be in Somerville, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), for SoundVision/VisionSound III: An International Exhibition of Verbo-Visual Artwork & Performance. I'll have seven or eight items on exhibition (all for sale for once), and I'll be giving a performance at 4:30 on Saturday, July 14th. It should be good fun.

To advertise this exhibition, the curators have sent me twenty-five glossy postcards. Today, I found a nice thin fidgetglyph that I could squeeze onto the card and still leave space for an address, and I created twenty copies of this glyph. I used extra-fine Sharpie markers, which Nancy and I had to buy today. And also I had to add my own name to the list of participants, because I was (unfortunately) left off the card.

Since you can read the information on the card below (once it appears at this site), please visit the show if you have a chance.


Geof Huth, "sigh" (3 Jul 2005)
The recipients:

1/20 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/20 Bob Grumman

3/20 Roy Arenella

4/20 Ruud Janssen

5/20 Mark Lamoureux

6/20 Reed Altemus

7/20 Erin Huth

8/20 endwar

9/20 Luc Fierens

10/20 Jassy Lupa

11/20 Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

12/20 RF Côté

13/20 Crag Hill

14/20 frips

15/20 Dan Waber

16/20 Jennifer Hill-Kaucher

17/20 Ron Silliman

18/20 Scott McDonald

19/20 Ficus strangulensis

20/20 qbdp

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The Brown Face of Tsemp: "The 3 States of Nothingness" (qbdp # 71)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

I created a little calliglyph tonight and wrew upon the face of a dark brown found postcard. I like the contrast of the dark card and the darker ink forms. ("Tsemp," by the way is an old word of mine. Tsemp is necessarily unetic, and it is the opposite of pmest.)


Geof Huth, "The 3 States of Nothingness" (2 Jul 2005)
The recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Jassy Lupa

6. Dan Waber

7. Mick Boyle

8. Luc Fierens

9. W. S. Wilson

10. qbdp

Caught up Once More

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

I have been away from home (and my scanner) for too much over the month of June: eight nights because of work and probably almost that much time because of spending time with family at the lake. Tonight, I'm at the lake, and I have just finished posting and writing about most of the mailart I sent or received in June. To make sure you see all of the new postings for the day, read down through the entry for June 8th, which currently sits at the bottom of the top page of this weblog.

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Mailing Me the Past

Ruud Janssen has put together for me a mailing that is something of a memory of the past. It includes a number of pieces of ephemera (a postcard and a handful of stickers) about the 1992 Dececentralized World Wide Networker Congress ("Where two or more artist-networkers meet in the course of 1992, there a congress will take place"), which I paid little attention to as it was happening. He sent me a color photocopy the serves as a change-of-address notice, but which is an agglomeration of pbits of mailart he's sent and received over the years. And then he sent me this:


David Zack, "WHERE THERES NO" (May 1983), Last from Ruud Janssen to Geof Huth (Jun 2005)
What a wonderful memory. I don't know David Zack, the apparent creator of this interesting text, but the rest are well known in mailart circles, and, unfortunately, Robin Crozier (an oftentime contributor to the defunct zine, Lost and Found Times) is now dead. Zack created this piece the year I learned of the existence of mailart, and Robin Crozier and Clemente Padín mailed it out the very month my first child, my daughter Erin, was born. Somehow, this is all about mMemEmO rORori liesES.

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Friends and Refrigerator Magnets

Jassy Lupa is fairly new to mailart, but not new to art at all. She's a quite talents draftswoman as this self-portrait-on-corrugated-carboard-as-refrigerator-magnet proves. And she can carve quite a handy image as well.


Jassy Lupa, Refrigerator Magnet (27 Jun 2005)
In the note she includes with this magnet, she says she didn't understand my poem "writ/WRAT/wrot," which is understandable! But my favorite line from her mailing is this one, written on the back of the refrigerator magnet:

I heard this once:
"You can never have enough friends or refrigerator magnets."

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No, Wait, the Potato Alphabet Actually Begins Here!

I received Dan Waber's potato-printed A card ("splArt") second, but he probably sent it to me first. He's probably proceeding through the alphabet in order. This is another nice visual pwoermd, this time one about art and failure or splashiness. It's my favorite so far (two letters into the alphabet!).


Dan Waber, "splArt" (24 Jun 2005)
The front of this card (as well as the B card) carries this message:

This card is __ of 100.
If you or someone you know
would like to receive one,
additional copies may still be
available for $2 each.
Dan Waber's address is 463 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre-PA 18702.

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The Potato Alphabet Begins

Dan Waber is the man of many projects. He has scores of poetic/artistic projects wriggling up in the air around his head at every moment, and this card of his is the beginning (well, at least at my end) of the latest.

I'm a connoisseur of pwoermds, so I was quite happy to receive this imaginative and playful example of the visual pwoermd. And the word "buble" (with or without a capital B at its center) I find quite delightful. It suggests a big bubble to me, one about to burst, and the large B, with the circular holes in its side, helps to support this idea.


Dan Waber, "buBle" (23 Jun 2005)
For a little while, I wondered what Dan had used to stamp this B. Then I remembered he had been asking around about potato prints. So here we have the most artistic example of a potato print I have run across.

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Tripping over Threes

Mick Boyle has sent me another classy card. A wonderful tryptich: random lines, suggesting letters, or bits of DNA; a man's face in the center, with another layer of image supperimposed on it; and a murder of crows, arranged in the manner of Escher.

Oh, and he sends this message: "It's too hot to blog.


Mick Boyle, Triptych (20 Jun 2005)
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Painting against Numbers

Christopher Fritton is playing with the paint-by-numbers concept, and he's sent me a few digital examples of his progress. But my favorited of these is the one he has sent by mail. I'm not sure exactly how he created this card, but he has pasted a dark, small textured rectangle of card onto a larger, lighter-colored, textured card. Then he has somehow printed over that card. This produces a wonderful effect: the dark against the light, the orange outline and numbers upon both of them.


Christopher Fritton, Paint by Numbers (20 Jun 2005)
Here's what Christopher says about his project:

i've become obssessed with the idea that paint by numbers is its own genre - i'm going to undertake a little project where i mail poets and artists paint by numbers and make them complete the work and return it to me -

but i think these postcards are an attempt to push paint by numbers out of the realm of painting and force other possibilities on them - what if i didn't want to paint at all? what if i wanted to turn it into a poem? what if i wanted to erase parts of it, and construct via deconstruction? all of these things are possible, but the constraints imposed by paint by numbers, visually and psychologically, impair this freedom - even my extension of the paint by numbers' lines are guided by their 'intention' - so even freehand doodling cannot escape their influence -

there's an ethics here that i haven't even begun to examine. the ethics of paint by numbers.

So now I have to change this card into something else.

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Not a Debut, but a Rebut

RF Côté is a remarkable mailartist, always changing the format of his mailings, constantly inventing, always thinking. His pieces are lovely and urgent all at the same time. Take for instance this latest piece from him:


RF Côté, "TRASH REBUT" (15 Jun 2005)
We have painting, stencilling, spraypainting, found pieces, stapling, taping, stamping (of various kinds) creating this remarkable piece. The piece's title is its text: TRASH, Eng garbage, refuse, detritus; REBUT, Fra scrap, a piece of garbage, a shard of trash. But also a pun suggests itself: "rebut" as the opposite of "debut," to debut again, to end up as something old or used, yet still wonderful.

I don't usually show both sides of a mailed card, but this card is so wonderful, I feel compelled to show it all. I love the stamps he chooses: large contemporary stamps, a couple of old ones that are obviously from the 1940s, and a few tiny scraps filling in the postage. Plus all the rest on this side. Also, I note that RF has stamped this 05-11, so I wonder if he is starting to number his mailings.


RF Côté, Reverse of "TRASH REBUT" (15 Jun 2005)
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The Eyes of Ruuda Janssen

Ruud must know that I love verbo-visual works with the word "eye" in them (I have created scores of them myself)--because he has sent me a beautiful painted card, emblazoned with eyeshapes and the word "eye" itself. Molto grazie!


Ruud Janssen, "EYE EYE" (15 Jun 2005)
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From the UK, a Card from Finland

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen has sent me one of his glossy cards from the United Kingdom, even though he lives in Finland. It is a dark image of something like the embryonic pieces of a letter.

The strangest thing about the card to me: that the UK postmark, which by postal convention does not have to bear the name of this particular country, doesn't even bear any indication of the value of the stamp, which I thought was required of all countries. Maybe the UK is off the hook on this account as well.


Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, "DAP # 3" (Jun 2005)
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Visual Haiku Controversies

Scott Helmes sent me a wonderful selection of his recent visual haiku, most of which I have reproduced and commented on elsewhere. The posting of these visual poems to my blog started an interesting little tempest in a queer little teapot, most of which you can read about under my blog entry on Helmes' pieces.

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The Works and Personage Named Ray Johnson

William S. Wilson sent me a wonderful treasure: Nine postcards, some reproducing works by the great mailartist (the great neo-dadaist artist) Ray Johnson and some reproducing photographs of Ray Johnson himself. Wilson took each of the photographs of Johnson, and many of Johnson's works on these cards are from his collection. Wilson did not include a note in his mailing, so I don't know what engendered this generosity, but many thanks to Wilson for this gift.


The Downturned Head of and Various Works by Ray Johnson" (Sent by William S Wilson to Geof Huth, 13 Jun 2005)
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Designer Fashions for Mail

Jassy Lupa is a great mailart designer. She sends me this time a slim envelope created from a folded page of a glossy magazine. The cover is white text on red that spells out "Dsigr" ("Designer" to me). Inside she includes a beautiful carving print and a little note. I now know that Jassy's birthday is June 12th, for anyone who'd like to send her a birthday greeting next year!


Jassy Lupa, "carved this" (11 Jun 2005)
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Roy Arenella Has Made it Home

Roy Arenella has moved to Greenwich, New York (which is pronounced "Green Witch" for some reason), and as I predicted we have not yet been able to meet, mostly because I've been out of town way too much in the past month. (But I expect to have time to meet him and his wife Martine next weekend, so think about that, Roy. Even Friday night is probably okay.)


Roy Arenella, "ROAD HOME" (13 Jun 2005)
Roy apparently picked up this card at a restaurant near Schuylerville, which lies between Roy's home in Greenwich and the only vibrant city in all of upstate New York, Saratoga Springs. Now, what does this card mean? He's made his way home driving on roads. He picked up the card at a roadhouse. And he is still surrounded by boxes and boxes. To me, it's just an update, but I'm probably missing something!

This is card 118CC, meaning that this is his 118th card of the year (the move has slowed him down a bit) and that it is a card of some sort. I don't know what the other C means: "copped card"? But I know I have to stop at this restaurant and pick up a few of these free cards for a future mailing!

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Extras and Surprises

Soon after Luc Fierens sent me a copy of Blausteinsee (his book of collaborative verbo-visual collages with Reed Altemus), Reed himself sent me another copy. Oh, what riches! (But more about those elsewhere.)


Luc Fierens & Reed Altemus, "Blausteinsee" (2005)
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Reed also included a "copy of the latest Hugo Pontes Communicarte," which is apparently a newprint zine of visual poems and includes six works including one by Reed Altemus. A nice little batch of poems from an operation I wasn't familiar with. (You can find Hugo Pontes' website here.)

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Desert Tarantella

kiyotei sent me, sometime last month, this like cactile drawing moving in the direction of asemic writing. A wonderful simplicity to this dancing character. But I also love the couture and coiffure added to George Washington's profile.


kiyotei, "Cactus Dancer" (Jun 2005)
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What Would Zapp Brannigan Do Without Him

On June 4th, Ruud Jannsen mailed me this card:


Ruud Janssen, 05-116 (4 Jun 2005)
Most of the image is obviously a face, but strangely I "recognize" this as the face of Kiff, the assistant to Zapp Brannigan on the canceled TV cartoon (and a favorite of mine), Futurama. Which goes to show that we can find anything in anything.

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A Collaboration Delayed

On the 23rd of May this year, Luc Fierens sent me a copy of his book of collaborative collages with Reed Altemus, Blausteinsee, which I enjoyed but haven't had time yet to write about. He also included a collaborative collage by Jim Leftwich, John M. Bennett and himself.


Jim Leftwich, John M. Bennett, and Luc Fierens, "Comb Drink" (21 Mei 2005)
Only today did I notice this note on the back of that collage:

Dear Geoff, please
ADD & return to Jim Leftwich

So I'd better start working on that!

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The Art of frips

It's been a while since I've posted any of the mailart sent to me, so I'm not sure if I misplaced this card from frips or if its trip to me was a longer one than usual. Regardless, here's a wonderful little piece from frips. She has wrapped a found card with green tissue paper (which completely covers the front but only part of the back)--then she stamped a dramatically cut image down upon the tissue paper.


frips, Carving TissuePaper Card (27 Apr 2005)
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Perception and Reading: "self seen" (qbdp # 70)

Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York

This cards had a slightly strange genesis. I wrew the four-color calligraph on the front of nine found cards while at Caroga Lake yesterday. Then, as I rode in a car a colleague of mine drove to Chautauqua Institution (in the southwest corner of New York) on our way to a meeting, I addressed as many of the cards as I could. Once at the Institution, I noticed it had its own post office, so I decided to write quick notes on the cards and finish addressing some of them and mail them from there so that they'd receive Chautauqua postmarks. I actually spent the night in Williamsville, New York, as this post makes clear.


Geof Huth, "self seen" (27 Jun 2005)
The recipients:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Reed Altemus

6. Christopher Fritton

7. Scott Helmes

8. Dan Waber

9. qbdp

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Levels of Collaboration: "VRR," etc. (qbdp # 69)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

A simple calligraph today, one I decided not to include in yesterday's "Digraphs & Trigraphs." I created these upon extras I had of Reed Altemus' Visual Poetry Collaboration cards. The front of each card included a collaboration between two verbo-visual artists, and I then added elements to each collaboration. This card I've kept includes what I think is my best (and only non-verbal) collaborative effort.


Reed Altemus & Jim Leftwich, "flake upper phase react" (2002) as modified by Geof Huth (Jun 2005)
The recipients:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Reed Altemus

6. Paper Kite Press

Geof Huth, "VRR" (26 Jun 2005)
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Folded Words: "Digraphs and Trigraphs" (qbdp # 68)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

Happy apoChristmas! which is that day in the exactly equidistant from two Christmases, June 25th, my younger brother's birthday.

This small booklet of calliglyphs took me a few hours to make, but I like it quite a bit. I wrew each glyph in a different color on a single sheet of paper I had folded into a six-page leaflet. I placed the leaflet into a small envelope of cream-colored laid paper, added a small Chinese chop mark and the title of the collection to the front of the envelope and added the colophon and a unique two-line message to the back of each envelope.


Geof Huth, "Digraphs & Trigraphs" (25 Jun 2005)
The recipients:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. kiyotei

6. Reed Altemus

7. Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

8. Paper Kite Press

9. RF Côté

10. Luc Fierens

11. Mick Boyle

12. Erin Huth

13. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

He Wrote the Written Writing Writ: "writ/WRAT/wrot" (qbdp # 67)

Holiday Inn Select, Room 360, Niagara Falls, New York

The "Select" is important in the name above because this Holiday Inn is one of two separate Holiday Inns on Third Street in Niagara Falls. I've been here in Niagara Falls (the US side) since yesterday, but I was too tired and too busy at the New York State Association of County Clerks conference to create a card yesterday, and tonight's card is pretty skimpy as well. I was trying to make a fidgetglyph (of sorts) that could accompany the nine numbered stickers I found in my new Moleskine notebook. Note that I matched the color of the postage stamp with the color of its respective sticker.


Geof Huth, "writ WRAT wrot" (21 Jun 2005)
The recipients:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Reed Altemus

6. Jassy Lupa

7. Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

8. W. S. Wilson

9. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

The Way in Which Text Swirls in the Currents of the Air: "zephyr/ari3" (qbdp # 66)

Ramada Inn, Room 276, North Syracuse, New York

Another simple fidgetglyph created in a small edition, since my colleagues and I are meeting in Syracuse with a members of the advisory council I work with. I created the glyph while in Lake Placid, and I wrew the glyph onto the back of a handful of free Amazon.com postcards.


Geof Huth, "zephyr/ari3" (15 Jun 2005)The recipients:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

The Certain Symptom of the Sea: "Sssssssea" (qbdp # 65)

Crowne Plaza Lake Placid Resort, Room 236, Lake Placid, New York

I created this small fidgetglyph today while sitting in a session at the New York Association of Local Government Records Officers (NYALGRO) conference. It is quite simple and I made few copies because I have to spend lots of time with people at conferences! For some reason, I have decided to show only the fidgetglyph itself, rather than the entire card, but the address and colophon and postage stamp on this are primarily (or entirely) blue--as is the photograph of the Adirondack's Heart Lake, which graces the front of this card.


Geof Huth, "Sssssssea" (13 Jun 2005)
The recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Mick Boyle

6. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

The Letter We Keep Curled Up in Our Pockets: "The Face of Type" (qbdp # 64)

Crowne Plaza Lake Placid Resort, Room 236, Lake Placid, New York

I created this small calliglyph while in Caroga Lake, so I wouldn't have to make one here tonight. I fashioned it to the back of a free "GoCARD" and quickly added the colophon and address. I went so quickly that I added the old name of this hotel to the card: the Holiday Inn Lake Placid. Oh, well.


Geof Huth, "The Face of Type" (12 June 2005)
The recipients of this card:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Luc Fierens

6. Reed Altemus

7. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

How Green was My Night: "23 HEÜST" (qbdp # 63)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York

Once again at the lake, I put together a small mailing on a big and beautiful Krazy Kard postkard. I wrew the fidgetglyph in green with a fountain pen and added the address and colophon in green as well. Then I colored in the rectangular space for a stamp and a part of the Krazy Kat komic strip with green colored pencil. And added a green stamp. On the other side of the card, I replicated the final green flourish (from the point of the ellipses).

The lucky recipients of this card were as follows:


Geof Huth, "23 HEÜST" (11 Jun 2005)

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. frips

6. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

The Varying Shapes of Meaning: "(k/p/[f/r])/ee(z/p)ing" (qbdp # 62)

Penn Station, Waiting Area for Passengers, New York, New York

While waiting for my turn to speak at a day-long workshop today, I doodled this single fidgetglyph, which examines the ambiguity of letterforms and written meaning. (Honest, it does.) Later, while waiting for my late-night train in Penn Station, I created seven of these cards and ran across the street to the all-night post office to mail them just before my train arrived.


Geof Huth, "(k/p/[f/r])/ee(z/p)ing" (10 Jun 2005The recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Erin Huth

6. Paper Kite Press

7. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

Flags of Various Kinds: "oh my flagging" (qbdp # 61)

Park South Hotel, Room 506, New York, New York

My daughter Erin and I went to the penultimate day of a small exhibition of the work of Tom Phillips. I enjoyed the show and took with me a good collection of the small bifold catalog for the show. Back in my hotel room I cut the cover away from the rest of the catalog and ballpoint-penned this large fidgetglyph.


Geof Huth, "oh my flagging" (9 June 2005)The recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. Luc Fierens

6. Erin Huth

7. Paper Kite Press

8. Ron Silliman

9. Crag Hill

10. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

The Transmogrification of Lettershapes: "His Holiness of Rags" (qbdp # 60)

Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, Room 718, Poughkeepsie, New York

Using a large advertisement postcard put out by the New York State Museum (which shares a building with my organization, the New York State Archives), I wrew a little calliglyph with walnut ink. Actually, I prepared the glyph ahead of time to save time, and I love using walnut ink because of the randomness of its tone and its wonderful nutty scent. This inkglyph is one of a series of visual poems examining how to reorganize the parts of calligraphic letters into new letterforms.


Geof Huth, "His Holiness of Rags" (8 June 2005)

The nine recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Ruud Janssen

5. frips

6. RF Côté

7. kiyotei

8. Erin Huth

9. qbdp

Mailart Station, Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, Poughkeepsie, NY (9 June 2005)
un violon d'ingres

The Answ to Your Ques

I have a hard time conforming to the imaginations of others, so whenever I'm asked to produce a piece of work that fits a theme or whenever I try to collaborate with someone, I tend to be slow. It takes me a while to inspire myself under those conditions. So it's taken me quite a few months to produce this simple visual poem


Geof Huth, "answ" (29 May 2005)
for and add-and-pass booklet Litsa Spathi sent out from the Fluxus Heidelberg Center. But I finally did. I should've used a different ink for the blue (as I did when I made my copy of the poem), but otherwise it turned out okay. Note that I'm using a small black f as my signature for this poem.

un violon d'ingres

Faces and Skulls

RF Côté does beautiful work. Taking a large stiff card from the "Imperial Stereoscopic Anatomy of the Head and Neck," he adds the faces of people in the form of stamps and he glues new eyes into the empty sockets of the bottom photos of the skulls. These skulls are stereoscopic, so maybe I should pull out my old stereoscope and see if they still trick my eyes into seeing three dimensional forms.


RF Côté, "Imperial Stereoscopic Anatomy of the Head and Neck," Section--IX--No.--29" (26 Mai 2005)
un violon d'ingres

Belgian in Pink and Blue

The wonderful frips, sewer of cards, sent me a great little photocard with different pieces sewn or glued onto both sides of a piece of corrugated cardboard. The front shows us a blender filled with a pink concoction and set against a blue background.


frips, Card, Front (29 Mei 2005)
The colorful back--I don't usually show both sides of a card--just has the address, stamps, etc., but what a beautiful scene it is!


frips, Card, Back (29 Mei 2005)
un violon d'ingres

A Coincidence in Cardboard

Just before Roy left Forest Hills, New York, for Greenwich, New York--which is so far from New York City that it is pronounced "Greenwitch" instead of "Grennitch"--he wrote me a note on a glossy piece of paper that came with one of the storage boxes he was packing his stuff into. Roy folded the sheet into a little booklet and wrote me a note from the back of the booklet to the middle--changing pens three times!

He also included in the envelope a bit of cardboard, with this message:

Roy Arenella, "A Natural Mark Becoming a Letter" (24 May 2005)
Roy was so rushed that he couldn't even be sure what the number was for this mailing; he had to say "117X (I think)," where the X means I don't know what since it usually means Xerox!

un violon d'ingres