About This Stamp
Food is an important part of most holiday celebrations, and two delicious kumquats, citrus fruits considered lucky when eaten around the Lunar New Year, are depicted on the Year of the Rabbit stamp. This is the fourth stamp in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series; the Year of the Rabbit begins on February 3, 2011, and ends on January 22, 2012.
In the United States as elsewhere, the arrival of the Lunar New Year is marked in various ways across many cultures. Parades and parties are common. Kumquats and other lucky foods are eaten and given as gifts. Festive red lanterns are hung in decorative rows.
The artist for this stamp series, Kam Mak, was born in Hong Kong but grew up in New York City’s Chinatown after his family moved to the United States in 1971.
Combining Mak's artwork with two elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps—Clarence Lee’s intricate paper-cut design of a rabbit and the Chinese character for "Rabbit," drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun—USPS art director Ethel Kessler has created a culturally rich stamp design that celebrates the diversity of the American experience.
The Celebrating Lunar New Year series began in 2008, when the USPS issued a stamp showing red lanterns for the Year of the Rat. The stamp for the Year of the Rabbit is being issued in panes of 12 self-adhesive Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.
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.
Stamp Artist
Kam Mak
Kam Mak was born in Hong Kong and grew up in New York City’s Chinatown after his family moved to the United States in 1971. Kam’s involvement with cityArts Workshop, an organization designed to encourage the art interests of inner city youth, inspired his love of painting. He earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1984 from New York’s School of Visual Arts where he studied on a full scholarship.
Mak’s richly colored paintings have illustrated the covers of numerous magazines and books including his first offering as both author and illustrator, My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, about a little boy growing up in Chinatown.
For his award-winning illustrations Mak has received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award for best children’s picture book, the National Parenting Publications Gold Medal, and the Stevan Dohanos Award and both gold and silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators. In addition to My Chinatown, books for which he won acclaim include The Dragon Prince by Laurence Yep, The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean, The Year of the Panda by Miriam Schlein, and The Moon of the Monarch Butterflies by Jean Craighead George.
Mak is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is currently working on a series of figurative and still-life paintings, using the medium of egg tempera, a process that uses egg yolk to bind pigments. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family.
Mak was commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to design the 12-year stamp series Celebrating Lunar New Year that began in 2008 and has continued through 2019. His most recent stamp design features Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (2021).