Posting Two Extra Bills

RF Coté, Posted Bills (Two by Geof Huth) (6 Nov 2005)
Reg has taken a photograph of his of a column decorated with colorful posters and posted reproductions of two of my glyphs on that column.

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Translating Expression

Ficus strangulensis, "we any almanacs?" (24 Apr 2003)
Ficus sends me a note thanking me for an easy mailing, one that didn't engender a feeling of "utter failure in seeing much of what" I do. But Ficus' work doesn't seem easier to me, and maybe more interesting.

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Renewed Punctuation 1

Dan Waber, "Prototypes of Punctuation for the Translation of Dreamed Poems # 1 (for Marton Koppany)" (3 Nov 2005)
Dan Waber has begun the process of creating new punctuation, all for our friend and conceptual poet extraordinaire, Marton Koppany.

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An Exhibition Closes

Roy Arenella, Seedpod Ephemera (17 Nov 2002)
In 2005, Roy Arenella took part in a one-man exhibition in New York City, and he asked a few of his correspondents (including Ruud Janssen and me) to send him some of our favorites of his work to include in the exhibition. I sent him eleven pieces, and a while after the exhibition he returned these along with an article on an exhibition on comicbook art, a book mark numbered 204X, and a little piece of found ephemera.

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Slice, Tear, Tape

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, "fire 3" (20 Oct 2005)
Jukka has merged together stampings from hand-carved rubberstamps and taped-down pieces of torn paper into a tiny little collage.

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Drawn with Thumb

Dan Waber, "A Flock of Wild Commas" (Oct 2005)
Dan Waber writes these dramatic and three-dimensional commas onto the back of a blue card.

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Fat Yellow Shoe

fat red ant, Yellow Shoe (11 Oct 2005)
Another beautiful picture printed onto a thick card by Vermonter fat red ant. The other side of the card is another bit of beautiful desigh: an old man, his eyes covered by the shadow of his hat, and images of artist stamps stuck atop his nose and his beard hair.

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Entranced by the Colors

Jim Leftwich, Rubberstamp Collage (3 Dec 2005)
Another tiny and beautiful rubberstamp collage from Jim Leftwich.

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Yule Love This

Marton Koppany, "Happy New Year" (2005)
Last year, Dan Waber put together a project where people translated lines in well known Christmas songs. The most interesting was this one by Marton Koppany, where he translated "Happy New Year" into "a 'concrete' dialect of English."

My contribution to this project was "Pack the Corridors with Limbs of Ilex," which Irving Weiss translated as "Rove the Bush with Chenes of Rummy" and endwar translated as "Dark the Holes in Bowls of Holy."

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Collaborating Glyphically

Ruud Janssen & Geof Huth, Collaborative Fidgetglyph (Dec 2005)
Ruud took a little fidgetglyph slipped into a qbdp mailing of mile and glyphed over it to produce this new fidgetglyph.

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Ps to U

Roy Arenella, Roy & Ps (22 Dec 2005)
This card from Roy congratulates me on completing a second year of activity on my main blog, dbqp. Because this comes close to Christmas and includes the greeting "PPPP," I take this as another holiday card as well. This card is numbered 228 p/c.

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Holiday Greetings

Roy Arenella, "Peace \ Walk" (14 Dec 2005)
A holiday card from Roy, this one is unnumbered, and Roy appears to have made sure that the back of the card carries a special "Greenwhich, N.Y., Home for the Holidays Station" cancellation.

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Various Lights

Roy Arenella, "Light & Delight" (7 Dec 2005)
Strange this mailing from Roy, not for the image I reproduce above (which is classic Arenellan: pun & thought), but because his note to me gives the qbdp numbers for each of the mailings of mine he's thanking me for. This mailing of Roy's is # 223 p/c.

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Sole Stitch

Lynn Jr & Elizabeth Zois, Solstice Artistamps (1 Dec 2005)
It is fortunate for me that this pair of mailartists, from the city of Troy (one of the cities that forms the Tri-Cities with Schenectady), decided to send me sheets of beautiful solstice artist stamps just before the end of last year. It is unfortunate that I didn't respond to their mailing at all.

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Meaning over Pictures

Ruud Janssen, "What This Means" (4 Sep 2005)
Ruud sent me a nice little package back in September of last year, along with copies of his colorful cartoony drawings, but I've decided to post his simple rumination on meaning, since that is what I'm about.

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Quail in the Bush (qbdp # 114)

qbdp # 114, "quail" (13 Oct 2006)
Beekman Tower, Room 22E, New York, New York
I came to New York today for a board meeting of the Archives Partnership Trust and a follow-up event for the Stewards of the Archives Partnership Trust, held at the Ukrainian Institute of American (almost right across the street from Mayor Bloomberg's home). The event was quite enjoyable, but I was a few dozen blocks from my hotel afterwards, and walked back there at night (as I'm wont to do). The night was late, and I was tired, but I still took a few blank postcards and wrew fidgetglyphs on them.

The recipients of "quail" (qbdp # 114) were

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. Jassy Lupa

6. Ross Priddle

7. Jim Leftwich

8. Ruud Janssen

9. Ficus strangulensis

10. Dees Stribling

11. qbdp

ecr. l'inf.

The Unknown (qbdp # 113)

qbdp # 113, "nk" (10 Oct 2006)
Sheraton Syracuse University, Room 634, Syracuse, New York

I'm staying in a hotel that is essentially on the campus of Syracuse University, where I received my first master's degree, and where I used to teach freshman English. As a matter of fact, right across the street from this hotel is a building where I once taught a class.

I arrived in Syracuse late, so I made a simple qbdp, using four copies of a postcard of a typewriter poem by Gustave Morin, "Oil to the Savant=Garde." Gustave's scrawled signature even graces the back of this card, fitting in with the four-line fidgetglyph I wrew there.

The recipients of this card were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. qbdp

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A Bird Re-Seen

Jassy Lupa, ColorBird (31 Oct 2005)
Jassy Lupa sends me a postcard emblazoned with a colorful bird in a colorful place.


Jassy Lupa's Geof Huth's "res een" (31 Oct 2005)
On the back she re-wraws my fidgetglyph "res een," making it look better than I think I made it in the first place!

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Earmark My Words

Brain Cell # 632 (31 Oct 2005)
Brain Cell # 632 is the first issue of Ryosuke Cohen's Brain Cell I've been in in many a year. Cohen has reprinted my "Earmark" (which I'd sent him as a fidgetglyphed card) as part of this mass of mailart. You can find the piece in the upper left of this image.

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The Power of Color

Jim Leftwich, Centerfold of Collage Booklet (17 Oct 2005)
Jim Leftwich is one of the three most productive visual poets in America. (The other two are John M. Bennett and Andrew Topel.) This little 16-page booklet (sort of a double TLP) he sent me appears to be nothing but a few misprints printed over one another. So why is it so beautiful? That's the hand and eye of Leftwich in action.

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Gallons of Collage

Jimi Camero, "Give Ballots to Felons?" 23 Oct 2005)
From ViZine! (and proprietor Jimi Camero) I received a note about ViZine! and a few fistsful of collages stuffed into an envelope, the largest of which I reproduce above.

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Know Big E

Dan Waber, "no big E" for Kris A. (25 Oct 2005)
Always playing with the alphabet, Dan Waber gives us (but Kris A., in particular) a little no and a big E, just so we know not to worry about things much.

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A Compliment and a Curse

Mick Boyle, "American Manhood" (22 Oct 2005)
A great typographical designer, Mick Boyle always captivates. This card I read as a bit of satire, but I might be wrong. I like how Mick likes to play with half-tone dots, reminding us of print as we look at image.

On the back of the card, Mick says, "I find it hard to keep up with one blog. I don't know how you manage several." Apparently, by putting one on the back burner for over a year, but now I'm back--and behind.

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Maybe "Hot," Maybe "Not"

fat red ant, Design for Wallpaper (22 Oct 2005)
fat red ant is a designer of spaces, but those spaces exist on cards. This one appears to be a design for wallpaper, but wallpaper that carries a word we can't quite see. All we can do is guess at its meaning.

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Just in Time for the Following Halloween

Dan Waber, "Pumpkin Patch" (19 Oct 2005)
Dan Waber takes us through an orange pumpkin patch as he spookily recites the alphabet. Is there anything more Waberian than this?

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I dId It

Dan Waber, "dId" (19 Oct 2005)
Dan Waber's mailart cards are almost always examples of art-as-innoncence, just as was much of the work of bpNichol. Waber is at play with these cards, this one a simple expression of joy at one's creation, at one's having created.

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What is the Difference between a Mandolin and a Lute?

frips, Mandolinist Card (19 Oct 2005)
frips sends me a little silkscreened card of a man playing a mandolin, but I thought it was a man playing a lute. I always guess the mandolin is a lute. Maybe I'm trying to avoid a French pun: "jouer la mandoline." But I doubt it.

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"A Classic," the Rooster Crows

Gustave Morin, "RN KES" (17 Oct 2005)
Gustave Morin says, "I could not fail to notice how enjoyed my mailings to you seem to be, so here is one of my standards; a post-pop found that has made a few rounds in the past year." And it is wonderful. The classic box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, when reduced to a fraction of its whole, is a beautiful little visual poem, something more than a potential bowl of cereal.

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XLent

Dan Waber, "Considering Turning 40" (14 Oct 2005)
As Dan Waber considered turning 40 (as if he had a choice), he created this card, graced with nothing more than XL, which usually means "extra large" on anglophone North American clothing labels. But there's also a pun in here: "excel." Aging, folks, is just a chance to take advantage of what you've learned over those particular many years of yours.

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Scratchings of the Past

Roy Arenella, "Unisphere" (12 Oct 2005)
Roy's card tells us this card is graced with a photo found underfook on September 5, 2003--a photo that has been enormously scratched, presenting us with a late-1920s view of the future where we now live.

On the back of the card, Roy states, "TERRAOR FIRMA." Then he adds, "(The big question).) This is card # 183CX (c=card, x=Xerox), released on 12 October 2005.

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Zaum H

Dan Waber, "H" (5 Oct 2005)
Dan Waber presents merely an H, with colors swirling through it (a la "Comma Zaum" for Jim Leftwich [see previous posting]). Again, we are meant to remember bpNichol, the great Canadian poet, writer, artist of many kinds.

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After Mail Accident, Man in Comma

Dan Waber, "Comma Zaum" for Jim Leftwich (4 Oct 2005)
Sometimes, a piece of mailart is mangled by the postal service (or services). Such was the fate of this card by Dan Waber, but this damage now becomes an essential part of the meaning of the card. It is in the mailing that mailart becomes mailart, after all.

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From One Photographer to the Others

Roy Arenella, "Hello Photographers!" (11 Nov 2004, 29 Sep 2005)
Roy Arenella is a photographer as well as a mailartist (something that is clear if you've ever seen much of Roy's mailart). He also has a large collection of old postal cards, old stamps, and rubberstamps in his home. Somehow, with these simple tools, he puts together things like this visual essay, reproduced from its 11 November 2004 date of birth.

This is card number 176 USPS/pc (the 176th card, this one a United States Postal Service postal card).

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Birds-in-Art

Jassy Lupa, Rooster Head (27 Sep 2005)
Jassy sends me a couple of bird paintings (which she is creating "to get Angela Genusa's attention"), including one on a folded card and this rooster head, riding loose in the envelope.

She also asks me how I travel so much. Bad luck, I suppose. Or good.

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In the Desert Southwest of Quebec City

RF Côté, Photocard Collage (27 Sep 2005)
Such an un-Côté card this. Sure the card is a collage and RF Côté is a big collagist. But this collage is sent to us as a photograph. Nice, but so unlike the usual from reg which includes lots of pieces mounted into three-dimensional space.

On the back, reg gives me a little compliment: "Dear Geof, you 'City of New Orleans' is just fabulous. Thank you very much for sharing your art." And my thanks, doubled, back to you, reg.

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The Aitch Has It

Dan Waber, "aloHaha" (24 Sep 2005)
Dan Waber sends us a humorous little card this time, part of his examination of the letter H (made in memory of the work of bpNichol).

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Shaw?

Dan Waber, "Pish!" (20 Sep 2005)
I really have no idea what the significance is of Dan Waber's simple "Pish!" It seems to be a thumbing of the nose at the world or an indication of the valueless of it all. But that is hardly Waberian.

And I don't care about the meaning. It's a great piece showing the printer's fist in action. This looks like Dan might have used real letterpress type to make this card.

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Finish Your Dinner

frips, Sewn Collage Card (20 Sep 2005)
frips sends me another of her classic cards. This one is created out of one piece of cardboard cut out of a cereal box (we can see the cornflakes in a soft blue bowl), upon this she sews with a sewing machine a plate of beans). She obviously wants us to have a good solid set of meals in the day.

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Yes, Ho!

Dan Waber, "Letters in My Mailbox" (for R.F. Cote) (10 Sep 2005)
Dan Waber sends me a small card with white outlines of letters in a white outline of a rural mailbox, all in a field of blue. This, a tiny homage for one of the great mailartists of our time, Quebecker RF Côté.

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Geof hUth?

John M. Bennett, Mailing (12 Sep 2005)
John M. Bennett merely creates. He doesn't eat or sleep or dream, because that would take time away from creation. In this mailing, he sends me copies of two of his tacky little leaflets (TLPs), single sheets, printed double-sided, folded in half twice, and stapled without opening the top endges of the booklets--thus leaving four pages virtually hidden from view. The TLP "Mud Lamp" is also part of jwcurry's long-running 1-cent series. This one is 1-cent number 371.

The G & U on the cover of the envelope remind me of my name. I wonder if John had that in mind.

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A New Independence Day

Roy Arenella, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit Toot-Toot of Happiness" (11 Sep 2005)
One of my favorite mailartists is the one who now lives closest to me. This mailing is an "Independence Day 2005" card, but he created it on September 11th, 2005. This card is number 168(USPS)pc for the year 2005: the 168th card, a United States Postal Service postal card (as opposed to postcard). (That last may be a distinction only the USPS makes!)

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Correspondence Found within Correspondence Art

Jassy Lupa, Self-Portrait (10 Sep 2005)
Through 2005, Jassy Lupa kept sending me her beautiful paintings, many self-portraits. What makes Jassy so different from most mailartists is that she includes real correspondence, not just scraps of notes, as part of her mailings. In this one, she comments on one of the postcards I'd send out from New Orleans last year (I left there nine days before Hurricane Katrina hit). She quotes me: "New Orleans had been finger- and head-throbbing hot."

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Stamps 4 U

Ruud Janssen, Painted Envelope (ca Sep 2005)
Ruud has sent me another of his remarkable painted envelopes, this one primarily a vehicle for the transmission of a palmful of used Dutch stamps for use in my own mailart. As he says, "use these strokes from the Dutch post office for one of your sendings." And that I shall.

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The 623rd Brain Cell

Extract from Brain Cell # 623 (10 Jul 2005)
For more years than I can count, Japanese mailartist Ryosuke Cohen has been producing his huge, one-sheet folded, mailart zine, upon whose face he collects evidence of the mailart sent his way. This issue was the first I'd seen in many a year.

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From This Point Forward

I will be posting images and brief discussions of the mailart I've received over the past year or so. I've got hundreds of pieces of mailart left to post, so it might take me a while, but my goal is to finish before the end of the month of October 2006.

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On Water and Wave (qbdp # 112)

Adam's Mark, Room 716, Buffalo, New York


Geof Huth, "sail/awave" (21 Sep 2006)

This is another card I didn't finish until I was in a meeting this morning after I left my hotel room, but it has a nice little fidgetglyph that goes with Lake Erie, besides which I was sleeping last night. I used as a transport mechanism this time a postcard announcing Gustave Morin's the etcetera barbecue, so I thought it only right to includ Gustave as one of the recipients of "sail/awave" (qbdp # 112), which are as follows:

1/5 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/5 Bob Grumman

3/5 Roy Arenella

4/5 Gustave Morin

5/5 qbdp

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Mystery Mailing (qbdp # 111)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York


Geof Huth, "issue abcess," Inside (10 Sep 2006)
I created this mailing from a kitschy set of eight identical sheets of fold-and-mail stationery featuring covers from the Nancy Drew series of mystery novels for children. The fidgetglyph I created for the first time today with a set of colored pencils, and I made that glyph the message of the mailing. My copy of this mailing is the only unfolded copy and the only copy that won't need to be razored open for reading and viewing in toto.


Geof Huth, "issue abcess," Inside (10 Sep 2006)
The recipients of "issue abcess" (qbdp # 111) are as follows:

1/8 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/8 Bob Grumman

3/8 Roy Arenella

4/8 Dan Waber

5/8 frips

6/8 RF Côté

7/8 Karri Kokko

8/8 qbdp

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Afire and Unflamed (qbdp # 110)

Wingate Inn, Room 326, Ellicottville, New York


Geof Huth, "if A fire" (8 Sep 2006)
Although I've been in Ellicottville, New York, for the past three nights (with fugitive Bucky Philips on the loose), I didn't get a chance to finish this qbdp mailing until this morning, when I addressed the postcards, addressed them, etc. Earlier, I had wrawn a rhyming glyph on the white side of a set of blank cards.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced my list of recipients, so for now my list of recipients of "if A fire" (qbdp # 110) appear below:

1/10 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2/10 Bob Grumman

3/10 Roy Arenella

4/10

5/10

6/10

7/10

8/10 Dan Waber

9/10

10/10 qbdp

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A New Beginning (qbdp # 109)

Still Point, Caroga Lake, New York


Geof Huth, "chaos/dugoz" (4 Sep 2006)

My family is spending the US Labor Day weekend at the family camp on East Caroga Lake, and I've been creating new fidgetglyphs recently, so I decided to take one of these fidgetglyphs and affix it to a postcard. I used as the mechanism of transporting this glyph an advertising postcard for Sarah Sloboda's photography studio, and I used a recent set of cartoon superhero stamps to complete the gestalt.

The recipients of "chaos/dugoz" (qbdp # 109) were as follows:

1/7 Bob Grumman

2/7 Mick Boyle

3/7 Roy Arenella

4/7 RF Côté

6/7 Ruth and Marvin Sackner

7/7 qbdp

Misaddressing on my part changed the usual order of recipients a tad this time, which shows I have a lot of getting used to to get used to.

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