green man

green man

Originally uploaded by Two Cranes

I used vintage postage stamps from around the world to create green man phi. I combined a traditional symbol of regeneration with Marquardt’s Phi (golden ratio) mask, to make a heroic Green Man. He is strong but also a little vain, judging by his hair and mustache.

I used vintage cancelled postage stamps from Poland, United States, Hungary, Equatorial Guinea, German Democratic Republic, Spain, Germany, and others. For the Green Man’s dapper comb-over and extravagant mustache I used orchid leaves from stamps issued by Republic of Guinea. The card is a standard trading card size, 2.5 x 3.5, so he is quite small.

Green man didn’t last long on etsy. Someone bought him within hours of posting.

the beginning

My interest in using postage stamps to make art began when I found this image of Joan of Arc on an obscure web page, here. The web page itself is a query: Does this craft have a name, other than collage? Are there other examples?
I’ve been searching for several years on the internet and haven’t found any other examples. I’ve studied this image and tried to learn from it. I doubt I will ever come close to matching its artistry.
I think the reason there are no examples of postage stamp collage is because there are taboos about defacing stamps as there are taboos about defacing money. Even used stamps are commonly believed to have value for collectors. You might not be willing to cut a used stamp into pieces if you thought it might be worth something. For me, the postage stamps my dad dumped into multiple shoeboxes are found objects that I can recycle into art. As artists’ materials go, they are cheap…actually, free. I believe the artist who created the Joan of Arc collage felt the same way.

blue guitar

blue guitar

Originally uploaded by Two Cranes

This collage was inspired by a technical drawing of a Stratocaster guitar. I used parts of various stamps, including a reproduction of a Picasso nude, the word ESPANA, a horse’s head from a CCCP stamp (USSR), the word “Mars,” a spacecraft, and the red planet itself. I’ve matted this one in black and it’s available at patinae.etsy.com

Compass Rose

Compass Rose

Originally uploaded by Two Cranes

I love compass roses. If you visit my store at www.patinae.etsy.com you’ll see other compass roses there. This collage is one of my favorites because I used one of my best stamps, a literary stamp from Monaco that illustrates a scene from the book Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne.

On the advice of my daughter, I decided to mat my collages using 8×10 mats in cream or black. This was good advice. They look wonderful matted. My collages are small, intimate, meant to be viewed up close. I like to frame them and put them next to a chair, or in my hall (with good lighting) so someone can get close and examine all the beautiful details of the stamps.

Conversation

Conversation

Originally uploaded by Two Cranes

This is my latest collage, available at www.patinae.etsy.com
These chairs have seen a lot of history. They are constructed of cancelled postage stamps from Europe and Asia. I wonder what messages those stamps conveyed. The chairs can’t tell us, so they wait in silence for two occupants who will continue the dialogue.

Stamps are an expensive media for collage, if you look at the cost per square inch. But I inherited boxes full of loose stamps that never made it into my dad’s albums. I wonder if he would disapprove of my vandalizing of his stamps. He did have a sense of humor. As a child I sat with him at the dining room table and sorted through stamps. He would give me a pile of stamps and I had to research them in the catalog. There was an exam when I finished! I had to tell him about the stamps: the number, date, identifying colors and watermarks, the history of the art on the stamp. It was a fun way to learn about geography and world history. Now as I’m sorting through stamps to use in a collage, I find stamps that have the ID number on the back in his handwriting or my own. It’s a little spooky.