Why do artists make faux postage?

It's fun, it's relatively easy, and as art goes, it can be fairly inexpensive.  Like graffiti, it's also public--no gallery owner will pass judgment on your work and you're guaranteed to have your art seen by at least 3 people:  your postal clerk, the recipient, and the postal person who delivered your mail. 

You can issue stamps to commemorate an event, a person, make a political or spiritual statement, get a giggle out of somebody.  Some do postal parodies, taking a commemorative stamp and "tweaking it" in a humorous way.  The U.S. Post Office's H stamp became my G stamp with my favorite kid Gracie wearing the hat. 
 
 

Gracie Uncle Sam

The James Dean stamp became the coffee-flavored James Bean stamp.

There are more than 1,300 artistamp designers worldwide with an important contingent in Canada.  The Artistamp News, a newsletter for this esoteric art form, send sample stamps with every issue.  Special exhibits of artistamp work have been held in major European cities and in many U.S. cities.  Alyce's artistamps have been exhibited in San Francisco, Brazil, Italy and Germany.  To find out more about artistamp exchanges, shows and exhibits and to contribute your own, go to the back of any issue of Rubberstampmadness and check out the Bulletin Board section.
 
 

If you want your mail to get attention, design your own stamp...or buy faux poste from a designer (usually $5 to $15 a sheet).
 

	Take the Artistamp Class!
	Gallery of Alyce's stamps

"The envelope for this stamp would have to be the size of a basketball court," says Cornyn-Selby, who has been nicknamed the High Priestess of Procrastination for her research efforts on self-defeating behaviors. Artist and author Cornyn-Selby lectures nationally and trains corporate executives and FBI agents.

Cornyn-Selby joins more than 1300 artists worldwide who produce miniature postage stamps of their own. Called postoids or artistamps, the art form was popular in Europe in the 1930's. The stamps are traded, collected and displayed in gallery shows. Search artist stamps.
 

"You can commemorate anything you want on your own stamp -- a friend's birthday, your pet or even a family reunion," says Cornyn-Selby. The WORLD'S LARGEST POSTAGE STAMP commemorates the purchase of the artist's first car, a 1940 Ford, which she still owns.