E. F. HIGGINS III

VITTORE BARONI Issue

perforated faux stamp series - signed 1983

DOO-DA POSTAGE WORKS  

Perforated with an antique pin-hole perforator. 

8.5 x 11—  clean, kept archived (see photos)

SIGNED - "For Alex" (Alex Torridzone igloo, mail-artist)

Vittore Baroni is an Italian mailartist, music critic and explorer of countercultures. Since the mid-1970s he has been one of the most active and respected promoters and documenters of mail art. 

E. F. Higgins III (1949-2021) 

Edward F. Higgins III was born in Racine, Wisconsin on November 10, 1949 and grew up outside of Chicago. He had a childhood fascination with stamps (both postage and rubber), and as a child he began carving rubber stamps for printing. He studied painting and printmaking at Western Michigan University and the University of Colorado. In 1976 he moved to New York City, finding an apartment near Katz’s Deli, a well known meeting place for mail artists. In 1975 he produced artistamp sheets via offset lithography, and some of his work was featured in James Felter's exhibition, “Artists’ Stamps and Stamp Images” in 1976 at Simon Fraser University. Often the images for his stamps are taken from a painting. The image from the painting is photographed, reduced and then printed as the stamp. Higgins’ country represented on the stamps is known as “Doo Da,” and his logo is a “wingnut” – a hardware nut (i.e. a nut and a bolt) with wings on it. The word “wingnut” in English is slang for someone who is wacky, or slightly crazy. Many of Higgins’ paintings and stamps have this sense of humor about them with subjects such as fishing lures and the ubiquitous wingnut logo. (via mailartists at wordpress dot com)