Grab some kids and some art supplies and hit that play button above: Episode 3 of the DT Pod is here and it’s all about the USPS & STAMPS. After a relaxing drawing warm up, the DT Pod takes a field trip to the post office where DrawTogether Kids get their most pressing questions answered by Mekkah, an Oakland postal worker, and Bill Gicker, Director of Stamp Services for the USPS. Then we draw our own stamps featuring our favorite places, things, and people, including Mary Fields, the first African-American star mail carrier.
Not sure how far our drawn stamps can carry a letter, but they’ll sure look good trying.
We’d LOVE to see your USPS-inspired artwork. Take a pic of your DT-Pod-Stamps, post them on instagram and tag @drawtogether.studio. Maybe yours will get featured in a future newsletter!
What goes into a stamp?
Want to learn more about what goes into the artwork on a stamp? Here’s a story by me (WendyMac) published in the New York Times a few years back:
Mail art!
Mail Art is art people send to one another through the mail, and it has a super rich history. Below are a couple examples of mail art, along with a couple pieces of USPS “Fanmail” Art not to be missed:
Twice a day, every day, for almost 12 years, the conceptual artist On Kawara sent a postcard to friends, family members, collectors, and colleagues. On each postcard, he stamped the date, his name, his current address, the name and address of the recipient, and the phrase I GOT UP AT (always in English and capital letters) followed by the time he rose from bed. Here are some he sent his friend John Baldessari.
Artist Ray Johnson was an avid art mailer, and this one is pretty spot on for our show today. (Rivers over Rectangles! Rivers over Rectangles!)
Jason Polan sent a ton of art through the mail. When hardship struck the USPS, he placed this ad-art in The New Yorker
Friends of DT Tucker Nichols & Electric works printers made a USPS Eagle shirt! And OMG it comes in kid sizes.
Speaking of friends of DT and Eagles, did you catch the latest episode of Terrestrials, the new kid’s podcast from our friends at RadioLab and WNYC?? It’s all about those powerful, magical, symbolic birds, and a very special American eagle family. Listen to the Eagles episode of Terrestrials (and more!) here.
Call us!
The DrawTogether free hotline is open: 1-866-4DrawTogether - tell us what you like to draw, what you want to learn to draw, and, for an upcoming episode, what part of the HUMAN BODY is hardest to draw. 1-866-4DrawTogether!
Everything is better when we draw (and send those drawings to each other) together.
xoxo
WendyMac & the DT Team
Put a Stamp on it!