1st Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron / USA Election 2008 Commemorative

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Hmmm for reasons which will shortly be revealed, I have rejoined the AML / Artistamps list. And someone has announced an Art Call for a USA Election Commemorative (faux) postage stamp.

This is a very big community, and lots of people hated me because my stamps aren't made of tangible paper or snailmailed to the other members of each Art Call. My palette is entirely electronic (MS_Paint, usually), my stamps are intangible, and I zip them all over the world via e-mail.

One of my stamps was a QuickBasic program -- it looked sorta like a stamp, but it wiggled, it was a wiggling wooden Brio clown. If you have a copy, Please Send It Back To Me, Thank You Very Much. It took me about a week to program it. A stamp made of computer programming code was too suspicious and confusing to a lot of the AML members, Hard Feelings ensued (even though I only sent it to members who requested it).

Jeez -- what do they want from me? I'm the Drunk Driver of Visual Art! And I hate hard work and I hate responsibilities and deadlines and obligations.

But I made lots of pals on AML -- real artists! And they liked my stamps! My screwy stamps have been EXHIBITED in Galleries & Museums! If you can't believe that -- well, neither can I, but it's really happened!

The crap (in this case the explanatory text and the color registration pattern) which isn't the actual stamps is called Selvage or Selvedge. It's a term from fabric craft borrowed by philatelists and stamp artists.

Many of the real faux postal / mail artists have 400-pound perforation machines called the Rosback. Others use a hand tool called the Fiskar perforator. Donald Evans hand-perforated his stamps.

I disclaim all responsibility if you print these out, put glue on the back, and try to send snailmail with them. That Is Against The Law. I guess governments consider it a form of counterfeiting.

PRISONER A: What are you in for?

PRISONER B: They busted me for countefeiting postage stamps.