The Portland Stamp Company has transformed bespoke philately. And no, that’s not some sticky sex act, but rather mail art at is finest. For over a century, stamp and mail art has been a widely practiced expressive form that ranges from the creation of beautiful and witty postage from fictitious nations to precisely forging real stamps and sending them through official postal services to see whether the fakes get detected (the art is having the fakes canceled and reaching their destinations).
The Portland Stamp Company does not engage in the latter but it does produce perforated sheets of stamps by a talented throng of artists and designers. I asked Niko Courtelis, Vice Perforator, to introduce Portland’s most recent philatelic achievement:
“We always get excited when we have the chance to collaborate on an edition with an artist we admire. Art Chantry is one of the very first people we asked. We’ve known him as the Pacific Northwest creative legend that he is for over 30 years. During our discussions Art was very enthusiastic, and wanted to take a trip back to the early days of LSD. He even mentioned a friendship with Owlsey Stanley.
“The artwork for the edition resembles the passport of a wild journey from Mexico to Mars. The sheet of small stamps is an homage to blotter acid; we even screenprinted small dots, suggesting that each tab has been dosed (they haven’t). Melts in your mouth!”
These are stamps that take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.
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