#jonathan beer

STAMP SERIES: » (4/6) Christmas 2016 – The Christmas Lantern

The last five decades have seen traditionally themed Christmas stamps created for the Royal Mail by numerous well established artists and designers such as Raymond Briggs and Quentin Blake. This year, for the Christmas 2016 stamps collection, Helen Musselwhite has taken on the task of truly encapsulating five decades of Christmas themed stamps in the form of shaped paper cut outs of iconic symbols for the festive season, captured by leading still life photographer, Jonathan Beer.

At first, Lanterns did not contain a light enclosed by a structure in order to provide light that beamed towards a certain direction. Instead, it can be traced all the way back to Ancient times, where residents in Ancient China would sometimes capture fireflies in transparent or semi transparent containers, as the fireflies would be the initial light source. After centuries and centuries of different designs and even uses, the modern electric Lantern that is most commonly seen today was developed, of which are now used to provide light to roads and can often be used to mark places of interest.

History indicates that the link between Lanterns and the Christmas season came from the Philippines, where special lanterns made out of bamboo and paper were made to try and illustrate the Star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Kings to the manager according to the traditional Nativity story. They were also created to symbolise the power of light over darkness and hope and goodwill during the Christmas season, which is why the modern Lantern can sometimes be linked to being a symbol of Christmas.

The Christmas 2016 Presentation Pack contains a miniature sheet which is illustrated with key images that represent the quintessential spirit of the Christmas Season such as a country cottage in the snow, numerous snowflakes, a holly plant, a Christmas tree bauble, some Christmas trees and a post box. The Christmas Lantern Stamp is included as part of an elegantly crafted presentational pack which brings together 50 years of Christmas stamps to truly capture the nostalgic and memorable season of festivities.

The Christmas 2016 Presentation Pack makes for a glorious Christmas gift for any age and provides both an enchanting and fascinating insight into combining the past and present of Christmas traditions in an elegant presentational format.

 Please note that delivery is only available to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

STAMP SERIES: » Christmas 2016

The last five decades have seen traditionally themed Christmas stamps created for the Royal Mail by numerous well established artists and designers such as Raymond Briggs and Quentin Blake. This year, for the Christmas 2016 stamps collection, Helen Musselwhite has taken on the task of truly encapsulating five decades of Christmas themed stamps in the form of shaped paper cut outs of iconic symbols for the festive season, captured by leading still life photographer, Jonathan Beer.

Delving into the history behind Christmas Stamps, the very first mention of their introduction came during Anthony Wedgwood Benn’s role as Postmaster General in 1964. Through discussions and arrangements with the Post Office, he organised a stamp-design competition to take place for school children across the country to great success, leading to over 5,000 entries overall. The launch of the very first Christmas stamps would come a little later on down the line however, when Benn’s successor in the Postmaster General role, Edward Short, released the first ever Christmas themed stamps designs in 1966 whilst congratulating and awarding the two six year old winners of the competition, Tasveer Shemza and James Berry with prizes for successful submitting their winning designs.

This festive presentational pack is illustrated with key images that represent the quintessential spirit of the Christmas season such as a country cottage in the snow, numerous snowflakes, a holly plant, a Christmas tree bauble, some Christmas trees and a post box. Included inside this wonderful and caringly put together presentation pack are eight beautifully designed stamps featuring a Robin, a Snowman with a matching hat and scarf, a fully decorated Christmas Tree, a Christmas Lantern, a Christmas Stocking and a Christmas Pudding.

The Christmas 2016 Presentation Pack makes for a glorious Christmas gift  for any age and provides both an enchanting and fascinating insight into combining the past and present of Christmas traditions in an elegant presentational format.

Please note that delivery is only available to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Bridgeport, CT-- Artists can explore, reflect, extrapolate or rearrange in any number of ways, the barrage of endless data from hard news to social media that we all must navigate, initiate or muddle through each day. Eye on the Storm, curated by D. Dominick Lombardi, opens Thursday, June 13 from 5 to 7pm. This event is free and open to the public.

The art in this exhibition responds to or reflects upon the sometimes-overwhelming storm of information in roughly three phases. The calm comes into view with mixed media works like Touch, by Anita Arliss, which captures the haunting stillness right before a disruptive event. The storm has representation with the collages of Chambliss Giobbi, which suggests the storm may have its greatest effect on the human psyche.  The aftermath is expressed with works like Trong Nguyen’s Library, where the artist, in an attempt to put all the pieces back together again, writes the entire text of various books, word for word, on individual grains of rice. With these fresh interpretations through the artist’s eye on the storm comes a very different, and perhaps better and more thought provoking understanding of the world around us.

Artists in the exhibition: Isak Applin, Anita Arliss, Jonathan Beer, Susan Breen, Mia Brownell, Ernest Concepcion, Paul Gagner, Chambliss Giobbi, Richard Höglund, Shawn Huckins, Marcus Jansen, Arcady Kotler, D. Dominick Lombardi, Marci MacGuffie, Tim Merry, Arnold Mesches, Rashaad Newsome, Trong Nguyen, Leah Oates, Rebecca Reeve, Holly Sears, Karen Shaw, Patricia Smith, D. Jack Solomon and Melanie Vote.

Elizabeth Riley, Party Animal

Leah Oats, Untitled, 2011