G2701

Helping Children Learn

Father Reading to Child

Collins Cover Announcement 

Helping Children Learn

I'm sorry, but I cannot get enthusiastic about the stamp design for this new issue. I realize that the designer was probably trying to use symbolic art but with such a good topic to work with, my own personal preference just will not permit me to praise the result. So, now that you know my opinion of the stamp, I'll tell you how I approached this project.

As is usually the case, I decided to go right to the heart of the subject, and I present a children's activity center. Starting at the rear and working forward, my handpainted cachet shows an easel representing the "arts" and a physically active boy demonstrating that it is important to learn about one's own health and physical well-being. A toy xylophone brings in musical appreciation and toy blocks portray the ever-important concepts of color, geometric shapes, and building of parts into wholes. An older child helps a younger one with computer basics, and I think this is important because children do teach children. And finally, I take the same three components that the stamp designer chose (an adult, a child, and a book) but gave them a face, an identity, a feeling of warmth and relationship, and just a good old-fashioned recognition that here is someone "helping children learn."

I used this stamp in the same way I did the Marathon stamp (which I did not like either), and that was to complement the cachet In both cases, I used a "busy" setting done in realistic art form in contrast to the abstract stamp design, and in both cases, I used color coordination of the cachet and the stamp to give the cover a "nice look" I think you will really enjoy this COLLINS First Day Cover as I have given my cachet interpretation of how the average citizen envisions the important task of "Helping Children Learn." Item #G2701.