What Are Artistamps?

Long ago in a kingdom far far away, I found my face on an "Artistamp" from the imaginary land of Bingolia.

It actually came in the mail, by hand of the letter carrier, to my mailbox. It was pasted on an envelope and was accompanied by US postage that looked absolutely plain and boring in comparison.

Oh my. This was just WAY too interesting to ignore.

I did some reading, talked to other artists, and in short order I too was designing faux postage so I could use it in all sort of applications.

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Thus was born the wholly imaginary, but nonetheless quite Estimable, Empire of Ephemeria

In the years since then a realm grew up around the stamps it issued.

Princes, Duchesses and holidays were "conceived," garb adopted, heritage concocted and events created all for the sake of the art.

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New artistamp issues are designed to commemorate actual events plus those which occur only in the flights of fancy of our imaginations.

Thus were born auspiciously bizarre events like the Empire of Ephemerias' Chin Hair Apreciation month - along with the more legitimate Ohio Statehood Commemorative issue.

Understandably, as with any postal service, unexpected things happen in the Empire including image problems, spelling mishaps and other happy accidents.

Of course these just make those stamps more collectable and fun. You can make puns from them and create all sorts of mischief.

So cross your fingers and pray for the error-prone among us.