The first postage stamp for Christo Javacheff
This is the first postage stamp block for Christo Javacheff, known as Christo and it marks his 85th birth anniversary. Also it’s the first stamp with my design and illustration on it. Limited edition of 5100.
To be invited to design special stamp and special postmark for such an incredible artist and genius like Christo, whom i admire, was beyond all my dreams.
It took me weeks to have the courage to start portraying him. When something is so big and you feel admiration and respect for the person you are going to portray, you want to honour his personality and art in the best way possible and not mess things up. After almost obsessively long research, reading books, articles and browsing albums, I came up with the idea of Christo wrapping himself in the postage stamp block with his own art, but at the same time it looks like he is wrapping the viewer.
Christo is a citizen of the world but i believe Paris is a sacred place for him. Paris was the place where he met Jeanne-Claude in 1958 and they together fell in love. In his words : “ After i escaped Bulgaria via Prague, my dream was to go to Paris where everything was happening”. That’s why i chose the wrapping of Pont Neuf in Paris as a background - i wanted to include Jeanne-Claude as well, not with a portrait but with the feeling of her. They both were and are inseparable.
This postage stamp is available in all philatelic shops in Bulgaria. Also it can be purchased through philatelic websites and philatelic exhibitions/fairs in Germany and France or from philatelic collectors.
Biggest thank you’s to the Ministry of transport , information technology and communications and to Plamen Stoyanov for inviting me. And to Stoyan Dechev and Plamen Valchev - my forever favourite teachers and advisors whose words and advices i always remember.
Wow! Saying this out loud and writing it still feels surreal. Like a dream but it’s true.
Thank you for watching, hope you like it!
