From Geof
Huth's Mail Art Blog QBDP
qbdp:
the mailartworks
(used
with permission Geof Huth, Editor)
Geof
Huth Essay Poems Approaching the Visual
Click Images for Larger Picture
RF Côté
“
liberte d'expression” (10 Feb 2006)
Another nice photo-collage, this time backed with a notice
for a new mailartzine, "Circulaire 132."
Geof Huth
"
Voici l'oiseau dans l'arbre" (qbdp # 120; 2006)
I'm tired from yesterday's creating and today's traveling
and presenting, so I cut back to a set of a dozen cards today.
(It would've been thirteen, but I produced one version of
the fidgetglyph that wasn't acceptable.) This card was made
more difficult by the slow addition of watercolors. The card
took so long to create that I gave up on including a message
on the back of each card. Instead, I used bits of the stamp
sheet I was using in place of a message.
Geof Huth "Dear _____" (qbdp # 199;
2006)
Sometimes, I'm a bit too ambitious, and tonight was one of
those times. I decided to take twenty large postcards I picked
up at the beginning of the month at the Hotel Saranac of
Paul Smith's College and to write a faux epistle on the back
of it to just as many people as I had postcards. The process
of writing this multi-colored letter was time-consuming,
but I'm drawn into the mesmery of this kind of work, even
as I wear myself out (temporarily, at least) doing it.
David B. Herriman,
"
An Outer Space Fish Ghost" (Jun 2006)
Last week at work, the postcard above appeared in my mailbox.
What I find remarkable about this is that the card is not
addressed to me--isn't, actually, addressed to any specific
person--yet someone decided I was the person best to accept
this correspondence. I never speak about mailart at work,
and only occasionally about visual poetry, but somehow
I became the recipient of this card. Good enough.
Ryosuke Cohen
Brain Cell 657 (31 Aug 2006)
Ryosuke Cohen, the best-named Japanese mailartist in the
business, sends me another copy of his Brain Cell, this
one from August 2006. I wondered why he sent me this issue,
but it might because he has added one piece to this normally
three-piece zine. A usual Brain Cell consists of an envelope
that never needs postage stamps to be mailed to me, a large
sheet of paper covered with colorful rubberstampings, and
a small tri-folded sheet listing all the participants in
the issue and their addresses. This issue, however, includes
another sheet, folded in threes then in twos, that includes
a two-page essay dated June 2006 and entitled "Mail
Art --- Networking Art." This essay covers a lot of
ground quickly: the importance of collaboration and sharing
in mailart, his point of view that mailart is slowing down,
and how artists can learn from nature.
RF Côté
Circulaire 132 # 7, Page 2 (October 2006)
It's been a while since I've received anything from the
great RF Côté of Québec, Québec——of
course, that's only because I didn't send him anything
for many months. And it is wonderful to receive mailart
from Reg again. What an imagination and what style he has.
Today, I received in the mail a copy of Circulaire 132
# 7, which is something like an assembling, but Reg stitches
together the various pieces received from artists from
all over the globe. There is plenty of beautiful stuff
here: an interesting (and short) article on V-Mail (written
in French, of course),
complete with illustrations, scads of artist stamps (including
one by Renéée
Wagemans that resembles a small piece of chainmail), a
little advertisement for this blog (complete with logo
by Mick Boyle), a little poetry booklet produced by Richard
Hansen (part of his Poems-for-All series), a little comic
printed in color, a couple of collages, one of the spliced
photos produced by Dan (of Portland, Oregon), and announcements
on mailart projects. This is what a mailart zine is supposed
to be!
Jim Leftwich,
"
Tritoma" (28 Oct 2006)
Jim sends me a small sheaf of new visual poems, including
this beautiful shaped poem about, I have to assume, the
flowers of the genus Tritoma. And the words bea uti full
y confirm this.
Roy Arenella,
"
Point & Shoot" (7 Oct 2006)
Roy Arenella is always pushing towards a poetry of the
eye. He is the ultimate poet/photographer, merging word
with image, as he does here with the simplest tools: rubberstamps.
The giant round lens of the camera does double duty as
an O, fully merging the visual image with the visible WORD.
In the tiniest note, Roy– who can write smaller than
anyone else I know – writes, "This (clearly
condenses) is what I've been trying to say." Because
his
mailart is about making points, this poet/photographer/philosopher.
Frips
Beetle (5 Nov 2006)
What can I say? frips, once again, does a simple and amazing
thing. This giant cut-out beetle, sewn by machine to a
cardboard card is quite a beautiful surprise.
Jennifer Hill-Kaucher,
"
for The Fall Leaves Variations" (Nov 2006)
Dan Waber has released yet another card in the series,
The Fall leaves Variations, this one another one by Jennifer
Hill-Kaucher. I keep reveling in her use of italics. Such
a good choice for these little concrete poems, this one
a simple replication of a leaf in full tumble.
Pati Bristow,
"
Peace" (3 Nov 2006)
Pati Bristow responds to a recent card from me (one months
delayed on my part) with another peace-related item, this
time a postcard. On the back of the card, she let's me know
of the location of her weblog :
(http://pati_bristow.livejournal.com/ ).
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).
Jim Leftwich,
Optych Xerolage (8 Jun 2006)
Dan Waber, "The H" (23 Jan 2006)
I have to assume that Dan is thinking of bpNichol (H-lover,
but only h-appreciator) when he put together this card of
aitches over what appear to be teeth. And with a name like
HUTH, I can't help but see shadows of my own name in here.
Mick Boyle,
"
Tear of the Moon Tea" (Feb 2006)
A charming little image from Mick, and the back of the card
is pink and blue with the outline of a rabbit and a snail.
Two different worlds on one little card.
fat red ant,
"
weeds in eden" (Nov 2005)
fat red ant sends me a stylish little picture covered with
zeros and ones and exhibiting just three small leaves. These
three represent the weeds in Eden. I think this is the only
black and white piece fat red ant has ever sent me.
Dan Waber,
"
winKnow" (Jan 2006)
First, I see a window, but I hear winnow, and I see a wink
and know a know. The K does all this.
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