“Trailblazers & Trendsetters: The Art of the Stamp” is the long but clever
name of an exhibit currently at the National Postal Museum in Washington,
D.C. “The Art of the Stamp” is a play on words, referring both to the
75 original works of art on display and to the knack of creating a piece of
art that will reproduce well at stamp size. The “Trailblazers and Trendsetters”
refers to the subjects depicted on these artworks, commissioned
for stamps by the United States Postal Service (USPS) over the last 40
years. Let’s peek behind the perfs.
THE ATHLETE WILMA RUDOLPH, CAPTURED BY SCRATCHBOARD ARTIST MARK SUMMERS, WHOSE PORTRAITS OF ALBERT SABIN AND JONAS SALK ARE FEATURED IN THE HISTORY & EXPLORATION
GALLERY.
WHERE DO STAMPS COME FROM?
My first-ever magazine article was about Love stamps and then-first-time stamp designer Michael Osborne, for the September/
October 2002 STEP. Four years later, I found myself distilling
that text down to 100 words as part of my writing and editorial
direction for Trailblazers & Trendsetters at the Postal Museum.
In the intervening four years, Osborne had gone on to design
several more postage stamps. He also went back to school part-time,
working toward a master’s degree in Graphic Design at the Academy
of Art University in San Francisco. His thesis topic: the USPS
and its stamp design program … and the culmination of his thesis
work is the exhibit design for Trailblazers & Trendsetters.
Suggestions for stamp subjects—submitted to the Citizens’
Stamp Advisory Committee—number about 50,000 annually.
David Failor, executive director of Stamp Services, says, “Each
year the committee receives suggestions ranging from someone’s
great-grandfather to the great American hamburger, with pets
and charities in between. The committee narrows these down to
an average of 25 subjects annually. Any subject ultimately chosen
must have broad national appeal.”
HOW AN IDEA BECOMES A STAMP
The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) meets several times a year to review the myriad suggestions received for stamp subjects. Some ideas come
from committee members themselves, and many others come from stamp collectors, postal officials and the public at large. Once a subject has been approved,
the manager of Stamp Development assigns it to one of the six independent art directors who work with the CSAC. The art director selects an artist whose
style and technique will bring the subject to life—capturing the essence of a subject at stamp size is something only a select group of artists has mastered.
USPS: PATRON OF THE ARTS
The Postal Service—not unlike the Medici family in Renaissance Italy—offers selected
artists highly challenging and exciting commissions. Peter Emmerich, who created work
for the Art of Disney stamps, enthuses, “For an illustrator working in the U.S., what could
be more exciting than creating the art for a postage stamp? I think even a
New Yorker
cover would be in second place. For stamps, your artwork is reproduced in an edition of
millions, and then sent all over the world.”
Artist Michael Deas, who has several stylistically different stamps to his credit, adds,
“Today, stamp artwork often reflects trends in pop culture and graphic design. Stamps are
colorful and artistically diverse, with more personality than ever.”
The artworks in the Postal Service’s continually expanding collection provide, figuratively
speaking, a portrait—or perhaps a patchwork quilt—of American history and culture.
These works give international exposure not only to the stamp subjects but also to
the artists. Until the National Postal Museum mounted the first Art of the Stamp exhibit
in 2003, very few people had ever seen the original artworks created for stamps. That
exhibit was tremendously popular, and has been shown at additional locations—it’s currently
scheduled at venues through 2008. (Visit www.sites.si.edu and click on Traveling
Exhibitions, then select The Art of the Stamp.)
PHOTOGRAPHY PIONEER EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, AS DEPICTED BY ARTIST FRED OTNES, WHO HAS THREE ADDITIONAL WORKS IN THE SHOW.
Allen Kane, who came to the museum as its director in 2002, is quick to acknowledge
that presenting “stamps as art” has wide public appeal. Whereas serious philatelists
are fascinated by stamps as objects, non-collectors tend to relate to the subject and
the design of stamps. Kane elaborates, “A stamp is a window into the history and heritage
of our country, but this doesn’t mean stamps are old-fashioned. The artworks in
this exhibit are a mix of old and new—some stamps go back a long way, commemorating
explorers and inventors from the past, and other stamps celebrate modern technology
and pop culture. The subjects also reflect our country’s diversity, because we have heroes
of every ethnic background.”
Pat Burke, who has been the exhibition director
at the museum since 1995, echoes Kane’s
perspective. “I really enjoy speaking with visitors
when they are looking at the art. They frequently
reminisce about where they were in
their lives when a particular stamp was current.
The stamp, this tiny piece of paper, is a placeholder
in their memory.” It’s an interesting notion,
that stamps become infused with personal
meaning, like Ray Bradbury’s dandelion wine or
Proust’s madeleine.
My first stamp memory is of a 4¢ magenta Abraham Lincoln. It would be years before
I actually became a letter writer, but I remember because my father let me carefully tear
the coil of stamps apart and place them in the clear plastic compartmentalized box in
which he kept his postage at the ready.
RAFAEL LOPEZ’ MERENGUE PAINTING IN FINAL STAMP FORM. LOPEZ’ ORIGINAL ACRYLIC ON BOARD IS SEEN ON THE FACING PAGE, IN ITS DISPLAY CASE, FLANKED BY SEVERAL PREPARATORY
SKETCHES AND FULL PANE OF THE LET’S DANCE/BAILEMOS STAMPS.
WHO ARE THE TRAILBLAZERS AND TRENDSETTERS?
Terry McCaffrey, who served as guest curator for Trailblazers & Trendsetters, is the manager
of Stamp Development for the USPS. He works closely with the CSAC and his group
of six independent art directors. He has served as the creative director for hundreds of
stamps and has personally designed 15 stamps.
McCaffrey selected the original artworks in Trailblazers & Trendsetters, which represent
the work of 42 different artists. He observes, “Aside from U.S. currency, which
restricts the individuals it commemorates on money to U.S. presidents and distinguished
legislators, the greatest recognition the U.S. can bestow on a citizen is to honor them on
a postage stamp.” McCaffrey struck a balance between history and popular culture, and
between immediately recognized and less well-known figures. Certain names are somewhat
familiar (Ponce de Leon, Wilma Rudolph, Robie House, Harriet Quimby, Billy
Mitchell), but you might not risk your Jeopardy winnings on their exact claims to fame.
Exhibit labels summarize each subject’s major accomplishments: professional contributions,
social advocacy, humanitarian work, historical significance. The text is spiced up
with lesser-known (but meticulously verified) facts.
ACCURACY INFORMS ARTISTRY
Accuracy is paramount in the art for a stamp, and extensive research is often required
to ensure that there are no errors in any of the stamp elements. Sidney Brown and
Louis Plummer are the owners of PhotoAssist, the firm the Postal Service relies on to
research pretty much everything and anything to do with stamp subjects. “Finding reliable
sources—including the right experts—is the key to this business,” says Brown. “We
carefully compare the stamp art to the reference materials and then work with written
sources and consultants to verify every detail. We also have to trust our instincts. If a
researcher has an uneasy feeling about something being wrong, or a question about why
the visual records and the written sources don’t agree, we make every effort to resolve
the discrepancy.”
EXHIBIT ESOTERICA
From the exhibit labels that accompany the 75 artworks in Trailblazers & Trendsetters, you can glean these little-known facts:
Arts & Entertainment: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy learned to speak their lines phonetically in Italian, Spanish, German and Russian for international
versions of their films.
Sports: In 1930, Bobby Jones became the first person ever to win the Grand Slam of golf. He is still the only person to have achieved this.
Transportation: Only 300 Chevrolet Corvettes were produced in 1953, all hand-built, all sporting the same Polo White body, red interior and
black convertible top.
Literature: Among the whimsical titles Ogden Nash concocted for his 20-some collections of poems are The Bad Parents’ Garden of Verse, I’m a
Stranger Here Myself, The Face Is Familiar and You Can’t Get There From Here.
History & Exploration: For his famous galloping horse sequence, Eadweard Muybridge used a complicated system of 24 cameras whose shutters
were tripped by the horse as it ran past them.
Most stamp-worthy events are commemorated years, decades or even centuries after
the fact. Consider the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial stamp, issued on May 14, 2004, exactly
200 years after the Corps of Discovery set out for the Pacific Ocean. Artist Michael Deas
wanted to evoke the spirit of the expedition, and he envisioned Lewis and Clark on a bluff
overlooking a river. But where and when would this have occurred?
Diary entries confirmed where Lewis and Clark would have been together—they were
apart more often than you might expect. Once the right river bluff had been identified,
PhotoAssist cross-checked maps and current photographs of the region to make sure
Deas had the right reference for the river and hills in the background. Louis Plummer
then worked with a historian, one of the National Park Service’s Lewis and Clark experts,
who was able to provide specific instructions for modifying the artist’s concept of the two
explorers on the bluff. Plummer also obtained accurate reproductions of the explorers’
clothing for Deas’ models to wear. For the pair of individual portraits, military records
were consulted to determine how long the explorers’ hair would have been.
WEARING YOUR HEART ON YOUR STAMP
Rafael Lopez had the “double thrill” of being selected to create art for a stamp to whose
subject he has a personal connection: Lopez painted the art for the Merengue stamp, one
of four Latin dance stamps issued as a set in 2005. His painting is displayed in a case at the
exhibit, along with several of his sketches. Introductory text in the case gives visitors an
insight into the artist’s connection with merengue.
Lopez comments, “Merengue is intimate, but it’s not showy. I wanted to capture the
posture that implies the dance, so I chose the most exaggerated moment in the sideways
move. I tried to create a feeling of closeness, not just between the partners, but with the
viewer, a sense that it could be you dancing, not in a dance hall, but in the backyard or on a
beach.” Lopez also collects and plays instruments, including the drum he chose to feature
in his painting. He confirms that he listened to Latin jazz while working on the project,
but did not fuel his creativity with any “theme beverages.”
STAMP ART UP CLOSE: FROM SKETCH TO FINISH
When Rafael Lopez was selected as the artist for one of the Let’s Dance/
Bailemos stamps, he had been dancing the merengue for years with his
wife. He knew firsthand how it differs from other Latin dances and wanted
to evoke both the nuances and his own experience of merengue.
This is a couples dance based on sideways hip movements. Lopez’ partners
hold each other closely, gliding to the right together. The artist chose
a sunny palette—redolent of a time when plantation workers, who couldn’t
hold evening parties, took dance breaks in the fields. The tropical foliage,
the man’s little hat and a flower tucked into the woman’s hair all create a
Caribbean mood, and a tambora drum recalls the merengue’s African beat.
DESIGNING—AND BRANDING—THE EXHIBIT
McCaffrey selected artworks in five general categories: History & Exploration, Arts &
Entertainment, Literature, Sports and Transportation. He and Michael Osborne agreed
the pieces should be displayed by category in the gallery, but that it wasn’t necessary to
call out the categories as such. They also decided that chronology (when the respective
stamps were issued) was not important.
The Postal Service shipped all of the art to San Francisco so Osborne could work with
his framer, Peter Kirkeby, to determine the best way to “standardize” 75 artworks that
vary dramatically in size, from smaller than the smallest mailable envelope (Dr. Mary
Walker’s 3 x 4-in. portrait) to larger than a sheet of legal paper (Marian Anderson’s 16 x
10-in. portrait). They settled on four sizes to which all of the artworks would be framed,
using a single dark walnut molding.
For certain artworks, Osborne wanted to show additional artifacts, such as sketches or
full panes of stamps, so he designed cases to display the framed pieces in context. In addition
to the standard exhibit label for each artwork, the cases accommodate an extra text
panel describing some aspect of the artistic process.
Osborne’s logo for Trailblazers & Trendsetters is a red postal cancellation. In addition
to providing a great visual clue to the exhibit’s subject, the logo reproduces gracefully at all
sizes. The usual applications include the entry wall and exhibit collateral. At the opening
reception, the logo showed up on lapel buttons for guests’ nametags … and an actual postal
cancellation available for posting mail from the party—a grand example of art imitating art.
Trailblazers & Trendsetters: The Art of the Stamp opened at the National Postal
Museum in November 2006 and is scheduled to appear there until June 2, 2008. Blaze a
trail to www.npm.si.edu to see the logo and all 75 stamp artworks in the exhibit.
(TOP): THE HISTORY & EXPLORATION WALL OF “TRAILBLAZERS & TRENDSETTERS: THE ART
OF THE STAMP,” THE EXHIBITION CURRENTLY AT THE NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON,
D.C. LABELS ON THE LEDGE INCLUDE TEXT ABOUT EACH STAMP SUBJECT, ALONG
WITH THE ACTUAL STAMP. COLORED BORDERS ECHO THE STRIPED ELEMENT RUNNING BELOW
THE LOGO, AT LEFT, AND UNDER THE TWO-PIECE WALL PANEL, ABOVE.
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