(USPS) Kam Mak is an artist who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn and is an associate professor in the Illustration Department at FIT. Kessler and Mak decided to focus on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. To commemorate the Year of the Ox, they chose a lion head of a type often worn at parades and other festivities.
Welcome the New Year with New Postage Stamps
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JANUARY 03, 2009
USPS

What do Lassie, The Tonight Show, Abe Lincoln, Gary Cooper, Gulf Coast Lighthouses, Civil Rights Pioneers, and Wedding Cakes have in common? They’re all 2009 stamp subjects. A few of the stamp designs are highlighted here.
Celebrating Lunar New Year: Year of the Ox
The second of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series, The Year of the Ox begins Jan. 26, 2009, and ends on Feb. 13, 2010. The dedication ceremony is scheduled to take place at 11 a.m., Jan. 8 at the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), 7th Ave. at 27th St., in New York City.
Art director Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD, worked on the new series with illustrator Kam Mak, an artist who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn and is an associate professor in the Illustration Department at FIT. Kessler and Mak decided to focus on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. To commemorate the Year of the Ox, they chose a lion head of a type often worn at parades and other festivities. Dancers wear such heads, often made of papier-mâché and bamboo, as they perform for delighted crowds. “Being a Chinese American and having celebrated Lunar New Year all his life,” Kessler says, “Kam is uniquely able to show how this holiday is observed in America.” The illustration was originally created using oil paints on a fiberboard panel.
Kessler’s design also incorporates elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps, using Clarence Lee’s intricate paper-cut design of an ox and the Chinese character — drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun — for “ox.”
Alaska Statehood
The Alaska Statehood stamp will be dedicated 11:30 a.m., Jan. 3, at the Captain Hook Hotel in Anchorage to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. Comprising more than 570,000 square miles of land, Alaska is the largest of the 50 states and home to approximately 670,000 residents. The name of the state derives from an Aleut word meaning “great land.”
The stamp features a photograph by Jeff Schultz of a dogsledder taken in 2000 near Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range. Text on the stamp reads “1959 ALASKA.”
Oregon Statehood
The sesquicentennial of Oregon’s statehood is dedicated on a First-Class stamp in Portland on Jan. 14. Oregon was officially welcomed as the 33rd state in the Union on Feb. 14, 1859. Today, Oregon boasts a diverse population, an active and innovative urban scene, and some of the most beautiful and fertile landscapes in the country.
Artist Gregory Manchess, of Beaverton, OR, was inspired by his own experiences along the Pacific coast to create the painting for the stamp. The result is an evocative piece that incorporates several elements of the coastline — trees, rocks, cliffs, and pounding surf — without illustrating a specific place.
“I wanted to make it an icon, an impression, of what the shoreline feels like when you look at the stamp,” says the artist. The public is invited to attend the 11 a.m. stamp dedication ceremony at the World Forestry Center’s Miller Hall, 4033 S.W. Canyon Rd., in Portland.
Hawai‘i Statehood
It’s surf’s up when the 50th anniversary of Hawai`i’s statehood is commemorated on 2009 stamp. Artist and historian Herb Kawainui Kane of Captain Hook, HI — who has dedicated much of his life to studying Hawaiian culture and history — created the painting on the stamp. In the art, a surfer rides a wave on a longboard, a popular choice among surfers for centuries. Next to him, two people paddle an outrigger canoe to shore. Kane has extensive knowledge and experience in surfing and canoe construction, a skill he developed from building a traditional sailing canoe himself. Kane worked under the art direction of Phil Jordan of Falls Church, VA.
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