TGIF Feature: New stamp commemorates Year of the Boar

Do you still use stamps? For those of you who grew up with smart phones and instant messaging social, and are unfamiliar with the little square pieces of art -- people used to write letters, pay bills and send notes through the post office by placing a stamp on envelopes and packages.

Despite the popularity of social media, plenty of people still prefer the personal touch the letters provide and for this, of course, you need stamps. 

Collecting stamps is still a serious hobby for many philatelists and the stamps could be valued many more times than their actual worth. Now there's another reason to buy stamps, especially this time of year if you're celebrating the Lunar New Year. The new Forever stamp commemorates the Year of the Boar and was designed by artist Kam Mak.

KAM MAK

It features bright pink peach blossoms. “The peach is very auspicious and represents long life,” the Chinese American artist told the Los Angeles Times. "It’s also the first tree that blossoms in the Lunar New Year, marking the beginning of spring in Chinese culture."

Mak was born in Hong Kong and grew up in New York City's Chinatown after his family moved to the United States in 1971. Kam's involvement with cityArts Workshop, an organization designed to encourage the art interests of inner city youth, inspired his love of painting. He earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1984 from New York's School of Visual Arts where he studied on a full scholarship.

Mak's richly colored paintings have illustrated the covers of numerous magazines and books including his first offering as both author and illustrator, My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, about a little boy growing up in Chinatown.

Mak is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is currently working on a series of figurative and still-life paintings, using the medium of egg tempera, a process that uses egg yolk to bind pigments. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family.

“I feel fortunate I was given the chance to use my artistic skill to pay homage to the Chinese laborers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad, and all those who paved the way before me. We helped build this country,” the illustrator told the L.A. Times.

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