Although my hobby of collecting postage stamps has waned in the last two years, I still find stamps that are stirring. More often than not, I am moved by the interaction between the cancelation and the image. A successful transformation requires adding qualities in a way that penetrates the space between calculated presentation and the moments where anything can happen (i.e. the act of cancelation). Here the sum can feel greater than the parts and something new is offered. The occurrence of particular cancelations can seem like miracles. When I started to collage stamps into my artwork, I began to receive gifts. One such gift was a recycled "Miracle Whip" jar (another miracle) that contained stamps. This is where I currently put recently found stamps and where the examples above reside. Whether or not the indelible gift of the jar and stamps were coincidental or preordained seems equally plausible. However, what seems more important is that wonder can lead to miracles. The size of the miracle seems less important.
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