The Story of the Stamps

COLLAGE STAMP SERIES 1

THE BEGINNING 
   Serendipity has always been a word that I have loved -- just the idea that you can be in the right place at the right time for something wonderful to happen -- what's not to like?
So it was with the inspiration for my current series of small collage works. 
Many years ago, a friend whose job it was to take in dissertations from all over the world to be evaluated by professors in the University of Florida Science Department, decided to cut the stamps off the envelopes and save them for her children.  They didn't have any interest in them so she gave them to me for my kids.  Mine thought they were pretty but soon lost interest.  Serendipitously, I kept them with absolutely no idea why.  Many years later, I became an artist and the stamps went into a little box in my studio.  There they sat for several more years.

THE CONSTRUCTION
   One day, having just made a bunch of new papers for collage I was walking around the studio trying to come up with an idea when I spotted the little box and Eureka! there it was, the seed of an idea which has blossomed into this series of pieces, each based on one stamp from countries all over the globe.

BUT THAT'S NOT THE END. . . 
   Just this week I reconnected with another friend whom I hadn't talked to in several months.  During the conversation she mentioned that her husband traveled a lot without her.  What does he do on his trips?? Attend stamp trading conventions.  The man is a Philatelist (stamp collector) who just happened to have a gazillion stamps he doesn't need.  Guess who now has a whole new set of the most amazing stamps -- Series 2 -- right around the corner.  Stay tuned for two more series in the works right now.