Ethel Kessler on American Stamps

There is something that, that I'm very in touch with, which is that all of life happens for a reason. It's quite interesting. There's not usually an answer to why did I have breast cancer. Most people just go, you got to get over that one. You got it, deal with it, move on. And if you're lucky enough to move on. So I had breast cancer. And not long after that, was asked to be one of the art directors for stamps. And not long after that, Congress passed a bill that there would be a breast cancer semipostal. And I am so fortunate to have been in the position that I was in and asked to design that stamp. It's just phenomenal. But then the task is daunting. How do you communicate something that is generally so feared and so destructive to families? How do you communicate that in the size of a stamp? We tried different routes, but the idea of really making it hopeful, like there's a possibility of finding a cure, was the right approach. We have a similar illustration, and it has a target there in her breast, and it was like, oh my God, not the target! But we took the target away, and that's where where we put the type. She had a very deep blue background, sort of like a moon and sky. It's like, "Oh, it's so depressing." But with the added color range that we've used, it's glorious. If you look at the drawing, it's the goddess Diana taking an arrow, pulling it so that, you know, she's gonna fight the fight and protect, and by the same token, it ends up being the stance of a breast cancer self-exam. If you take away the type that we have, and it's "Fun to fight, find a cure," there's no breast there. Can you imagine that after having breast cancer that you actually have a reason why you had breast cancer? So that I could come back as an art director for stamps and be able to take my experience and communicate that to the world in some way.