Artistic Lines
from Joan Justis
February 2018
joan@joanjustis.com
#joanjustisstudios
You Can Create a US Postage Stamp
Do you wonder about the pictures on US postage stamps? Who painted them? Why was this image chosen? How many new ones are there? Does the artist get paid? (Yes, about $1500.)
I purchased a beautiful stamp sheet entitled Flowers from the Garden and could not find the name of the artist printed on it anywhere! I searched on the internet, and was able to view the gallery and website of Elizabeth Brandon. Her style is “poetic realism”. I was delighted with my find.
Then as an artist, I asked the next question-Could I design a pane of stamps? The postal service receives about 500 requests a year! You can submit a portfolio that gives examples of your style (but no proposed stamp designs!) and every year a few new artists are selected.
HOWEVER, the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee will fully consider every idea for a new stamp image that is sent to them, and it will send an acknowledgment to the sender. The proposal has to be fully supported by historical information and important dates. It has to meet eleven points of criteria such as national appeal and significance. The portrait stamp has to be of someone who has been dead for three years or more. The subject matter cannot be negative. Celebration of anniversaries have to be in increments of fifty years. No religion or philosophies. The Stamp Development Office researches the suggestion or tables it. It takes approximately three years for the researchers, art directors, designers, photographers and printers to release a stamp. And only after it has been fully approved by the Postmaster General.
Eighteen stamp designs have been released for 2018. All stamps are copyrighted by the US Postal Service! Have you seen the 2018 BIOLUMINESCENT LIFE stamps. They are photographs of existing creatures that glow in the dark. Printed on reflective holographic paper the creatures seem illuminated! Seven of the images are photographs taken by Edith Widder, CEO and senior scientist of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association.
Max Pixel freegreatpicture.com
Enjoy the sites listed below, and if you love a stamp design, learn about it on the internet. Submit your own ideas to the US Stamp Development Office in Washington, DC.
https://blog.stamps.org/2017/08/10/flowers-from-the-garden/
For an interesting incident involving paying the artist, check this site-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/02/10/court-upholds-540000-judgement-against-usps-for-korean-war-stamp/?utm_term=.c01818fefa72
