Mercury Stamp Artist - Donato Giancola

Reporter David Chiu writes on Brooklyn, New York's CarrollGardens Patch.com website that local resident and artist Donato Giancola's artwork was selected for the upcoming Mercury Messenger stamps to be released by the United States Postal Service on May 4.

According to David, "Giancola, who is also a teacher at the School of Visual Arts, painted a 7' x 8' work called 'Prometheus,' which portrayed astronauts. That work led him to create the art for United Nations stamps that centered on the theme of space. As Giancola recalls, his space portfolio must have caught the attention of Phil Jordan, an art director with the Postal Service."

Giancola admits he was surprised to get the assignment. "They needed someone who had knowledge about space equipment and astronauts but also could do a portrait," he said. "Even though I never done an astronaut portrait before, it was evident that I could pull it together."

Dave says Giancola is happy to have his art depicted on the stamps and quotes him as saying, "I'm getting rid of all the stamps I have. I’m using them all up!" This will be my stamp."

Show above, Giancola with his portrait of Astronaut Alan Shepard.

To read the entire article, click here.