An artist has always been included in the production of postage stamps. After all, someone has to create their images, select the color and design the stamp. Being constrained by subject matter, selection committee, politics, etc, the artist found a solution to difficulties by using his own stamps. These have come to be known as "artistamps," a term coined by the late artistamps activist, Thomas Michael Binder (1944-1989).

Artistamps are works of art. They are made by artists to express their creativity, to decorate their mail and to exchange with other artists. They are not designed or meant to be sold as prepayment for mail delivery. Like any work of art, they carry a message-one the artist has chosen to communicate. I design my own stamps, adding "USA" plus a monetary denomination and have used them to mail envelopes which are prized as works of conceptual modem art. How can I print and use them on letters? I guess "I'm a prankster." The work has fooled the U.S. Postal Service. Works include Jane Fonda's mug shot, AI Capone, and even my head put on Michelangelo's David as an Italian stamp sent to an artist in Rome, placed in the mail  there and returned to me with an Italian postmark. Some of the pieces include bare-breasted women and condoms. It is the approval, at least as it passes in a blur through the cancellation and sorting machines, and the delivery back to me is what gives my work its value.

I design the stamp by using "appropriate images," others might call it pyretic. Envelopes rejected by the canceling machines were often handed over to supervisors, who saw that they got to the Postal Inspectors. They never return them to me. Other instances rejected envelopes have been cancelled by hand and sent on their way. I see the canceling machines and their operation as the final step in print making. They are included as a cohort in the art process.

I create one of a kind and full perforated sheets combining images for site-specific locations, adding denominations and U.S.A. with press-type letters. Multiples increased the chances of success and proved a wonder matrix of pop art,'the grid and repetition. When I joined the ranks of artiststamps, I discovered a world with federal and state statues, postal inspectors posing as patrons at art openings and electronic sensors designed to ferret out fraudulent intent with the appreciation of the ramifications of the medium and regulations that, as official documents, stamps provided an opportunity to propagandize, co-opt the "line," insert my own message and have it cancelled, delivered, growing proportionately with the success of the work.

 

Now, it has paid off, the Prankster art has met with top approval with my participation in the Museum of Contemporary Art while showing their collection and having my work as part of their permanent collection. This has given me the excitement to continue my work here in New Orleans.