Click for the gallery of 2004 stamps

It seems as though I am participating less in the Artistamp world these days, Perhaps because of my house and garden and all the work that comes with that. OR just losing touch with those that I traded with so often. Whatever the reason, there are fewer stamps this year.

Click for the gallery of 2003 stamps

I have been participating in some nervousness exchanges, for which I have made some special stamps. I am working on a sheet of SHOE stamps.

At this point though I am excited about making stamps! and really enjoying Adobe Photoshop and all the layering possibilities.

Online All The Time

Click for the gallery of 2002 stamps

Many of these stamps were actually designed in 2001, however they were never printed or released during that year. We hope that the Eyeland will get around to releasing these colorful images in 2002 along with many other new ones.

ALSO released this year is a special 10 sheet  series documenting a decade of stamp making by Exoticia Post.

Scan’t Imagine the Possibilities

Click for the gallery of 2001 stamps

This year I purchased my first scanner. I have been incorporating many different modes of artistic expression in my current stamps. The scanner and accompanying Photoshop software  has opened up new possibilities for my work. It has also been a lot of fun.

I have also been active in an online artistamp group. It has been rewarding and inspiring to share work with these artists. Many are total newcomers who frequently ask advise of the ‘old sages’. I offer my thought and  opinions. More often that not, I am rewarded with a stamp in the mail that is so fresh and new that it takes my breath away. We talk of techniques, we share our lives and we weave our imaginary worlds together. It has been great fun! Several  of the stamps created this year were for special calls or themes put forth by this group.

I am pleased to be the first featured artist on one of the  web sites that has grown up out of this group of savvy and computer- literate  artists. You can view this article on line at artistamp 101.

I have begun to have perforator envy. Many people in the group have acquired perforators in online auctions. These antiques are large, heavy and hard to come by. But my one-bedroom apartment is not able to accommodate such a monstrous tool.

 The  Eyeland of Exoticia goes Super Highway

Click for the gallery of 2000 stamps

This year I began using a computer and a scanner to take my other original artwork and turn them into stamp pieces.

Basically, you can see the original pieces in the gallery of this site. I took the virtues and focused the stamp area around the head of the image. The rest of the original piece becomes the selvage of a souvenir style stamp. My plan was to do a stamp version of the entire series of deadly sins and virtues. This project is still in process. Many of the sheets are completed except for perforating. You will notice on the finished ones that the perforation is only around the stamp itself, it does not cut across the selvage area. This type of perforating is very delicate and time consuming to produce.

The Virtuous Heads of State stamps are all about “Bringing” that virtue to the Eyeland of Exoticia. The Eyeland, after many years of moral abandonment, is seeking to reclaim the virtue originally inherent in the Eyeland. The Queen suggested this special campaign on the Eyeland. The governmental officials along with events planners and artists designed a year long celebration to “bring back the virtue” This event has had some difficultly in being fully realized due to the corruption that was rampant among the government at the time. The monies meant to fund the celebration instead funded one sneaky individual to take a trip to Bali. All of the guilty parties have been ferreted out and sent on a slow boat to China. The event’s planning has been re-built but an official date has yet to be set.