Featured Artist: Sheba

The Ecstasy Issue was the first one I made. I started with a drawing about 8 by 10 inches on a thin tracing paper. I added text using a stencil and a background pattern based on a distorted repetition of hearts and stars. All was created inside a simple ruler drawn box. I then took this to Kinko's and reduced it numerous times on the copy machines until I got a size I liked. Then with grid like graph paper I lined up several mini versions of the stamp on another piece of thin tracing paper. This was then copied onto full sheet sticker paper. I actually managed to pinhole perforate some of these early sheets, although I don't remember if it was Greg Byrd or Carl Chew's machine that I used to do this. Or if even, someone did it for me.

A/NTPEX was the first art show I entered as an adult and as an Artistamp Artist. This gathering of other stamp collector and creators was small, yet filled with tables of fascinating people creating amazing little faux postage. The piece I hung at that first show, sold even before the opening party. I was so thrilled that I haven't stopped since.

AB: WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS OF CREATING? ARE THERE SPECIFIC EVENTS, INSPIRATIONS?

SHEBA: My early stamps and most of my early artwork in general was inspired by my search for my identity as a woman and my place in the world. I was often inspired by love, the ecstatic beginnings and the tragic endings of relationships.

AB: TELL US ABOUT YOUR ISSUING AUTHORITY. WHERE DOES THE NAME COME FROM, AND HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT IT?

SHEBA: I thought of myself as exotic and wanted my "world" to be the place where that exotic-ness came from. So ExoticiaPost was the place that held this idea. Later it became The Eyeland of Exoticia, with the idea that exotic-ness was in the eye of the beholder.

AB: WHAT IS AN ARTISTAMP, TO YOU? DOES IT HAVE SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS TO FALL UNDER THE NAME "ARTISTAMP"? (FOR YOURSELF)

SHEBA: One of my first stamps was actually about 28"x 32", a large wall piece. I started out seeking stamps from other countries and stealing their borders and just inserting my own designs and drawings in the center. So I would say that the idea was definitely to mimic official postage. My stamps tend to be larger than most

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