About This Stamp
Flowers are a favorite subject of artists who draw inspiration from their exquisite beauty and varied shapes and colors, and they make beautiful stamps.
The Fanciful Flowers stamped card, featuring a stylized illustration of flowers and a bee, offers a touch of summer to tidings sent to friends and family.
This whimsical rendering in red, white, and green was inspired by observations of life in a garden. The artist used a process similar to woodblock printing to create the stamp art.
The colored petals and fragrances of flowers attract bees, providing these important flower pollinators with food and other nutrients in the form of energy-producing nectar and protein-rich pollen. This mutually beneficial relationship has facilitated the evolution of flowers and bees alike.
Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamped card, illustrated by Cathie Bleck.
Fanciful Flowers is being issued as a Forever® stamped card. Its postage will always be equal to the value of the stamped postcard price in effect at the time of use, even if the price increases after purchase.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.