Artist Statement
Bay of Islands: A postal zone on the west coast of the New Found Land in the North-West Atlantic Ocean. The stamps issued by Bay of Islands represent a bygone time, a simpler time, when the outdoors and the hand-line-fishery were a way of life. This was when its neighboring country, Upper and Lower Canada, was still young, unaware of daily struggle of life on the Island. These stamps are issued to celebrate some artifacts of everyday life from the unique BoI culture. The first two definitives issued to date represent outdoor life and are designed with reference the 1923-24 pictorial issues from the New Found Land. They are hand-printed from intaglio plates onto rag paper using the rare old technique of photogravure, the same one used for old currency and for postage in by-gone years. This production technique alone makes these artistamps unique in the world of postal art.
Poste Rorse (postrorse): directed backward. In this context, a look back to a time when life was simpler and directly connected to the sea and the land. These stamps enable us to commemorate, converse, correspond, or reach to the past, possibly by mailing our thoughts and wishes to those who lived before us.