Going Postal:
Two Michaels and the Elusive Stamp of
Approval By Lamaretta Simmons
Smoke from loose tobacco drifts lazily as cigarette after cigarette is
rolled. Guitar heavy music echoes around the studio.
This could be a session with Aerosmith or some other rock band, but
instead it is a chilly morning in the Pilsen neighborhood, at the
studio of Michael Thompson and Michael Hernandez de Luna. These two
Chicago-based artists cum Federal pain-in-the-you-know-what, not only
made a name for themselves with their brand of mischievous stamp art,
but also attracted the legal posturing of the U.S. Postal authorities,
who have threatened the two artists with legal action for making and
mailing bogus stamps.
The two Michaels, as they sometimes jokingly term themselves, have for
more than nine years, as part of their stamp art project, created some
of the most politically satirical, socially biting, and - as the more
conservative would say - lewd stamps to make it through the postal
service's censors: stamps depicting the wonder drugs Viagra and Prozac,
controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, infamous assassin The Jackal, a
lead member of the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult (the group responsible
for the 1995 sarin gas bombing of a Japanese subway), Monica Lewinsky's
dress, and the always shocking human genitalia.
"A lot of it you do for fun. This has been really a kind of fun thing.
You challenge yourself and you challenge the system of what is
acceptable and what is not acceptable," said Hernandez de Luna, who
received his undergraduate degree from the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago.
Their stamp art project involved the creation of fraudulent U.S. and
foreign government stamps, complete with perforations and postage,
which the two artists actually sent through to themselves on
self-addressed envelopes via the mail system, usually mailed from a
foreign country by a willing friend of the artists. The stamps traveled
through the postal system in hopes of evading the censors or being hand
cancelled by an intrigued, mischievous, and possibly disgruntled postal
worker, finally returning to the artists - project completed. This may
sound like an innocent enough prank. Really, who thinks about stamps
anyway? Aside from a few geek collectors in the world, stamps are
rarely thought of as anything but a mail necessity, and a god-awful
tasting one at that. (Let's all praise the self-adhesives.) But
subversion, however harmless, often comes with its own set of
consequences.
In 1997, after the Norwegian postal authorities caught Thompson's
"Origin of the World" stamp, based on a painting of the same title by
Gustave Courbet, depicting rather largely and naughtily, the crotch of
a woman, the U.S. postal inspectors threatened the two with legal
action if they did not cease and desist their stamp art project.
According to postal authorities the Michaels violated several federal
laws, including counterfeiting; mailing indecent matter on envelopes,
postage and revenue stamps of foreign governments; theft of labor or
services; and postage unpaid on deposited mail matter.
"They don't like the idea. When you start tampering with their revenue
it becomes an issue that they really don't like," said Hernandez de
Luna, in reference to the revenue lost by the postal service due to the
fake stamps, which he jokingly said would likely add up to just enough
to purchase a moderately nice meal.
Initiated by Thompson, who was later joined by Hernandez de Luna, the
seditious project did not emerge out of any altruistic motivation to
defend the world against the evils of capitalism or postal tyranny, it
grew out of a simple desire to see what they could get away with.
Reading about a Doonesbury cartoon that was used as a stamp and sent
through the mail sparked Thompson's initial interest, as he wrote in
their book, The Stamp Art and Postal History of Michael Thompson and
Michael Hernandez de Luna, released last year, "It seemed a brilliant
joke, a subversion of the system of taxation, with someone else's
representation." So began a brave new and rather unlawful relationship
with stamps.
"It opened a whole world. I [realized I] could put anything on the
corner of this envelope and it'll come back," said Thompson, sunglasses
donned and waving smoke with his hand gestures.
"When I first started it was just a matter of me bringing my friends up
and showing them my collection of envelopes, and I probably wouldn't
have gone any farther than that. But then Hernandez came back into the
picture and he introduced the idea of making sheets, which I really
hadn't done. I always made one of a kinds," added Thompson, who at one
time also roamed SAIC as a student.
Although gelled together in a two-headed monster kind of way when the
discussion of their work arises, at closer inspection it is easy to see
that despite their common appetites for the salacious, contentious, and
critically humorous, the artists are diverse in their approach.
Hernandez de Luna, whom it would be difficult to call shy, has what
appears to be an "I dare you" attitude towards the idea of stamp
censors. A lot of his stamps beg to be pulled from conveyors and set on
fire in a ritual dance of rebuke by Jerry Falwell. Among the images
Hernandez de Luna had the courage to mail are fornicating horses doing
it "doggy-style," serial killer and child molester John Wayne Gacy, a
nude depiction of Melissa Etheridge and her lover on a LOVE stamp, a
"Piss off" stamp with an old man giving the finger, and lots of images
of breasts ("Boobs" to be exact - at least that is how they are labeled
on Hernandez de Luna's stamps).
"[Historically] what [stamps] are all about is that they commemorate
dead things or important things. I think what we do is commemorate our
pop culture, how we see the world. As fun as it is, it is really
subversive. And we've been able to express something that is on our
minds and in a fun way," Hernandez de Luna said.
 One of Hernandez de Luna's most unbelievable feats was getting his
"Tom, Dick and Harry" stamps under the wire. "Tom Dick and Harry" is a
strip of three different 32-cent stamps, each featuring a different
ethnically-diverse male phallus. The images are actually dildos,
Hernandez de Luna revealed; However, more shocking than the penises is
the fact that the stamps came through the mail hand cancelled, proving
to Hernandez de Luna that the stamp found an admirer among postal
employees. Rather than drop the dime, this postal worker sent the
stamps through, adding an interactive dimension to the project.
Some may call him a man of few or lesser morals for that stamp, but
Hernandez de Luna is not a man without principles.
"I made [Tom, Dick, and Harry] on a principle of not being called
anti-feminist all the time. So I made [it] to prove that I wasn't
anti-feminist," said Hernandez de Luna, in reference to the number of
stamps he has created depicting the naked female anatomy.
And who said artists were self-absorbed?
While no less bold in his choice of subject matter, Thompson is
slightly more subtle in his approach.
"I try to choose things that are somewhat acceptable, not so obvious
that it'll be stopped in its tracks," said Thompson. "It has gotten
grander and subtler and more sophisticated. Nowadays they're done for
all different countries, which requires finding out how much [other
countries] charge for stamps ... at least it'll have the facade of some
reality so that when a postal inspector sees it there is a chance that
they'll accept it, cancel it, and send it through."
Both artists cull much of their subject matter from domestic and
international affairs, and when it counts, they often draw political
blood.
"I think anything that wouldn't really be commemorated on a stamp
appeals to me. Anything that societies or cultures are embarrassed of
or afraid of. We're pretty contrary," Thompson said.
One such contrary image is a highly charged, color South African stamp,
"The Necklace," which obviously takes aim at the apartheid regime
murders utilizing the tire burning apparatus, a linking the South
African government would surely not wish perpetuated.
"Some of these stamps are directed at countries. ... Some of them
really are painful for the countries. Those are the things I think
should be remembered," Thompson said.
 Other countries that have been ridiculed by the artists are China,
Ecuador, Australia, Turkey, India, Portugal, and Japan. All with stamps
as visually provocative as they are silently accusatorial, rehashing
memories of less than stellar political pasts. Such as the Australian
"Birth of a Nation" stamp, which features prisoners wearing balls and
chains, reminding the Aussies of their country's penal colony
start.
Also among Thompson's cadre of work is a stamp seemingly commemorating
Abraham Lincoln, but in actuality shows Lincoln sitting in the Ford's
Theater, with a hand holding a gun to Lincoln's head in the background.
And then there is the obvious jeer at the once-upon-a-time F.B.I. chief
headhunter J. Edgar Hoover in a stamp that reads "j. edgar homo" - a
designation I am sure will have upstanding and self-respecting gay,
lesbian and bisexuals knocking on Thompson's door any day now. Who
would want to claim Hoover?
 Aside from the artistic freedom required for this type of work, freedom
of expression once again entered murky waters when, in October 2001, at
the height of the Anthrax scare gripping the U.S., Hernandez de Luna
created and mailed his now infamous "Anthrax" stamps. The stamps were
not only caught by postal authorities, but actually shut down a main
postal distribution center in Chicago while the stamps were
investigated. With all the security hype surrounding the events after
Sept. 11, it is not a far leap to think Hernandez de Luna could face
something more serious than counterfeiting. He is currently facing a
possible federal indictment for the incident, and it wouldn't be hard
to see the government look upon the stamp incident as a threat to
national security.
Admitting that mailing the Anthrax stamp was perhaps a thoughtless
action, Hernandez de Luna said of the work, "It was just my way of
responding to the times." Nonetheless, he does not shy away from the
politics of chemical warfare. "Here we have the [U.S] government pissed
off about my [Anthrax] stamp, but [the U.S.] is manufacturing
[Anthrax]. It's a twisted sort of ideology of sorts." Hernandez de Luna
said.
 Michael Dorf, distinguished lecturer in the SAIC Arts Administration
and Liberal Arts departments, who also teaches a graduate course titled
"Law, Politics and Art," thinks that while Thompson and Hernandez de
Luna can be applauded for the courage to take risks in their artwork,
the consequences of their actions cannot be easily overlooked in the
name of artistic freedom or freedom of expression.
"The artist is trying to have it both ways and say, well, 'I want to
break the law to make a political statement, but I'm not willing to
accept the consequences for it.' I think that is a cop-out," said Dorf,
adding that this situation was about more than artistic
freedom.
"Do artists have to have any sense of responsibility as citizens? There
is a question about free speech. There is no such thing in the U.S. as
completely unrestricted free speech ... [but] the purest and the most
protected by the first amendment is political speech... Does the artist
have a responsibility even when trying to make a political or artistic
statement to look at what the consequences are? What is the difference
between sending the Anthrax stamp at the height of the Anthrax crisis,
versus ... going into a crowded theater and yelling fire? To what
extent do you have to think of what the consequences of that action are
going to be?" Dorf said.
Dorf, who has also worked in politics and government, said that the
government should be supporting things that the private sector is
afraid to support, but added, "I believe in the idea of pushing that
envelope, but I do think that artists are also citizens and should have
some common sense when they do it."
Asked if he thought the prosecution of Hernandez de Luna would deter
other artists from taking similar risks, Dorf responded that Hernandez
de Luna's potential prosecution is due to the artists breaking actual
laws, not an act of moral or social harassment without legal basis. He
also said that he did not think that this case would have a chilling
effect on other artists who want to push the edges in their
work.
Currently, Thompson and Hernandez de Luna are embroiled in a legal
dispute with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The Michaels say that
they entered into a contract with the Nature Museum to exhibit their
stamp art at the Stamps of a Different Nature exhibit. However, after
hearing about Hernandez de Luna's trouble with the feds over his
Anthrax stamp, the museum pulled the plug on the show, offering a third
of the $2,000 honorarium promised to the artists to buy them out of the
contract. This is unfair, said both Thompson and Hernandez de Luna, who
have become quite comfortable consulting lawyers when it comes to the
business of their art.
As the legality - or, rather, the illegality of their actions - have
become more present both artists have subdued their desire to subvert
the postal system with new stamp creations, at least for now.
Thompson, with a wink and a nod, was leery to divulge much about the
pair's current stamp activity, stating that any slip of the tongue
could come back to haunt them, later adding, "It's been a long time
since I've mailed stuff to my home address or to my studio because we
have received a lot of attention from the postal inspectors the last
couple of years. They keep a pretty close eye on us."
Despite all the negative attention they have garnered, both artists
smile broadly and eagerly discuss their old stamps as well as concepts
for new ones on the horizon. Currently, the artists are busy working on
new and different projects, including another book surveying their
stamp art scheduled for release in 2003.
Hernandez De Luna is currently working on a stamp project highlighting
the poisonous plants of North America. A seemingly educational
endeavor, but by now we all know there will be more to these plant
stamps than meets the eye. And while they have been frightened by some
of the legal jargon being tossed at them, without a doubt, these two
artists have left their stamp.
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