Commentary: The art of stamps should be more inclusive

Mona Fairbanks Queen 616
 The search for women in stamps leads to an artist’s commentary. Artwork by Mona Fairbanks.

Edmonds artist Mona Fairbanks recently dug into stamp images available from the United States Postal Service, and sent this note:

“I am teaching art this July in Seattle at the Northwest Girlchoir. One of the projects is designed to empower girls by creating a full figure out of a postage stamp of a woman’s head and the surrounding landscape. I was surprised at how few female stamps I found in my stamp collection so off I went to Aurora Stamps, where I found the same circumstances not only in U.S. stamps, but worldwide. Although I was assured at the stamp store that there were many women on stamps, I only found Eleanor Roosevelt and Lucy Stone that weren’t already in my collection. When I got home I did a little snooping online and found some interesting facts in the Baltimore Sun. In the article “Stamp out gender bias in Postal Service Commemoration” by psychologist Lynette Long, she states that from Jan. 2000 – Dec. 2005, out of 618 commemorative stamps 467 were topical, 123 were men, and 26 women. She goes on to say that stamp blocks fundamentally exclude women. 

“Back at the stamp store, the owner kindly donated about 30 stamps for the project. The images are of mainly Queen Elizabeth from Canada, Australia and U.K., with a few ladies on stamps from the Netherlands and Denmark. The frames for the project were donated by Barbara Mercer of Edmonds Frame Design and Atelier. I look forward to seeing what the students design during the week-long class. At the end, the camp will hold a private showing of their projects.”

 Editor’s note: Mona Fairbanks is an Edmonds artist. Her work can be found on her website and at the upcoming TEDxSno-IsleLibraries2016, Edmonds Art Studio Tour, and SurgeMoNA.

 

 

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