USPS Issues New Forever U.S. Flag Stamps


The Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating the U.S. flag with this stamp, which will be available in panes of 20, booklets of 20, and coils of 100, 3,000 and 10,000. The stamp art is a painting of three flags in a circular formation, reminiscent of the 50 flags encircling the Washington Monument. The artist used three photographs of the same flag taken seconds apart as reference and stitched together the images into a single composition. Laura Stutzman was the stamp designer and illustrator. Ethel Kessler was the art director.

 

The flags were painted traditionally, with gouache (similar to tempera) on a gessoed cold-pres illustration board. Stutzman used the photos she took to create a variation of the same idea, and when the three-flag concept was chosen by theUSPS, she used an enlarger to draw the composition on the board and then painted it, referring to the photos fordetails.

 

The actual painting is 4.625 inches by 6.5 inches, roughly four-and-a-half times the printed size.

 

"The three flag shots used on the stamp worked well for a low-angle perspective composition and were really a luckyaccident caused by my not moving quickly enough to compensate for the wind shifting the flag in a direction that wasslightly more perpendicular to the camera," Stutzman said. "Not what l had planned, and it was short-lived (only a fewseconds), but those photos ended up informing the composition because of their foreshortened shapes."

 

She noted that the inspiration has a technical origin, but there was an "ah-ha" moment while working with the photoswhen she thought she saw something that felt like a Washington Monument effect, with the 50 flags encircling thatlandmark.

 

"Having grown up in D.C., the monuments hold powerful memories and imagery that fuels my perceptions, and theway l depict the flag;" Stutzman said. "When accessing that symbolism, the goal for me is always to arouse hopefulfeelings in the public. The American flag is emotionally charged, even when we're not conscious of its presence.lt hassuch a strong sense of itself, that if you were to remove that tricolored 'brand from around those iconic D.C.