About This Stamp
Otters in Snow, a booklet of 20 stamps from the U.S. Postal Service, features four different scenes of the alert and playful North American river otter reveling in winter's white landscape.
With original illustrations rendered in pen and ink with watercolor, the stamps are arranged in blocks of four. From upper left and moving clockwise, they depict an otter poking its head — seen in three-quarters profile — from the surface of an icy body of water; an otter sliding on its back, tail first, down a snowbank; an otter chest-deep in a snow drift, facing the viewer; and another otter sliding down a snowbank. In the stationary poses, snow clings to the otters’ fur. In the views showing motion, small snowballs race the otters downhill.
A denizen of riparian areas throughout most of the United States and Canada, this elegantly long and sleek mammal (Lontra canadensis) is designed for life in and around the water. Besides webbed feet, it has a muscular tail, about 40 percent of its entire body length, that powers it in swimming and diving. Otters may look a bit awkward when walking, but they are nothing but graceful as they twist and loop through the water, slide down snowbanks, or frolic in the fluffy white stuff. When they glide across ice to get to an opening and dive into the water below, it is because they depend on river creatures for their winter diet. We may shiver at the thought, but their dense double-layered coats insulate them against the winter cold and keep them from freezing.
Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps with artwork from illustrator John Burgoyne. The Otters in Snow stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
John Burgoyne
John Burgoyne was raised in Massachusetts, where he developed a passion for art at a very early age. After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art, Burgoyne embarked on a career as an illustrator. Today he works from his studio on Sandy Neck, Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.
Burgoyne’s illustrations have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Cook's Illustrated, New York, Town and Country, Garden & Gun, Golf Digest, and Golf. His corporate clients have included Apple, American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Delta, IBM, the United States Postal Service, Volkswagen, Daimler Chrysler, Publix, A+E, and A24 Films. He has also created art for the Florida Aquarium, Bermuda Aquarium, and the Bermuda National Trust. Burgoyne's vineyard clients include Harlan Estate, Spottswoode, Trinchero, and Chappellet.
A member of the New York Society of Illustrators, Burgoyne has received more than 100 awards in the United States and Europe. His work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, the Hatch Awards, Graphis, Print, One Show, Clio, and the New York Art Directors Club.
Existing illustrations of fruits by Burgoyne have appeared on the Apples postcard stamps (2013); on three 2016 low-denomination stamp issuances: Apples (one cent), Grapes (five cents), and Pears (ten cents); on one 2017 issuance, Strawberries (three cents); and on one 2018 issuance, Meyer Lemons (two cents). He created original illustrations for the Otters in Snow Forever® stamps (2021).