Artistamps
Guest contribution by Anna Banana
Image of Cinderella State by Graham Wade, Review Publications, Australia.
Since the mid-60's, when the International Mail-Art Network (IMAN) began, artists have been creating and producing their own "cinderella" stamp editions. In 1957, French artist Yves Kline purchased actual postage stamps, painted them blue, and mailed 3,500 postcard invitations to his exhibit with them. The World of Donald Evans features the miniature watercolour paintings with faux typewriter perforations of the best known creator of artist stamps. His stamp sheets were shown and sold as fine art; only two of which are known to have been produced in unlimited editions. In the late 1960's Fluxus artist Robert Watts created several sheets of single colour, photo offset stamps which he used on his mail, and sold in his exhibit at Grand Central Moderns Gallery from a wall mounted, coin-operated stamp dispenser.
By the mid 1970's the IMAN encompassed an ever expanding group of artists. When the colour Xerox machine came out, artists like Ed Higgins in New York, and Carl Chew in Seattle began producing stamps for their own postal authorities; Doo Da Post, and Triangle Post. Others were quick to follow suit, and the race was on to locate antique treadle operated, pin-hole perforators that would give their small, colour copied editions (10-25 sheets) the authenticity they sought in parodying postal editions.
Between 1975 and 1990, the number of artists creating limited edition stamps expanded exponentially, inspiring me to start my publishing venture, International Art Post (IAP) in 1988. While photocopier technology doesn’Äôt allow the use of gummed papers, IAP was produced using four-colour, photo offset printing on dry-gummed paper. The first two IAP editions were perforated by stomping out one line at a time, 3-4 sheets at a time. This labour intensive process was replaced by a rotary, motor driven Rosback perforator that produced 6 lines of perforation on 4-5 sheets per pass. Without this machine the ongoing production of IAP and many private editions, would not have been possible.
On International Art Post editions individual stamp orders are ganged onto blocks of 3, 6, 9 or 12 stamps, on the press sheet. After printing and perforation is done, 500 stamps are painstakingly removed from the sheets on which they were produced, and packaged. At Banana Productions, we are always thrilled (and relieved) when artists order a block of 3 of their own stamps, alleviating the necessity of separating them from others on a block. Artists are encouraged to collaborate on blocks of 3, 6 or 9 stamps, so they can divide the blocks amongst themselves, separate some into individual stamps, and keep the others in sheet form for portfolio display.
October 31st, 2007 is the deadline for the receipt of art and a deposit for the annual edition of International Art Post. Finished stamps are delivered by November 30th, in time for use on/as Christmas cards and gifts, or throughout the year on mail, business cards, letterhead, etc., to promote one's skills and services. The price for 500 copies of an individual stamp is $160. For samples of previous editions and detailed information on ordering, send your mailing address to a_banana@uniserve.com
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