USPS 2024 wedding stamps designed by Huntington artist Kim Parker
Huntington native Kim Parker designed two floral postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service’s 2024 collection. Credit: USPS
In Kim Parker’s three decades as a painter, she has seen her artwork adapted just about everywhere — on home décor, stationery, and even behind famous actors on the big screen — but never on a postage stamp. Until now.
Parker, a globally recognized artist who grew up in Huntington, designed two paintings for the United States Postal Service’s 2024 stamp collection. The new stamps showcase her bright watercolor flowers — titled “Celebration Blooms” and “Wedding Blooms” — and will be available for pre-order in February before hitting post offices March 22.
“They were painted with all my heart; I can guarantee that,” says Parker, 60.
One of the two floral postage stamps that Kim Parker designed for the U.S. Postal Service’s 2024 stamp collection. Credit: USPS
Derry Noyes, a Washington, D.C.-based art director for USPS, had followed Parker’s career online for many years. When the theme of weddings came up in a meeting, she says she immediately thought of Parker’s lively, colorful pieces and commissioned her to design the postal service’s newest stamps.
“When she sent me the artwork she had in mind, I saw how it would reduce down to stamp size with type,” Noyes says. “The two pieces work together: the 2-ounce for the heavier wedding invitation and the Forever Stamp for the RSVP. It was perfect.”
Parker’s family was the creative type — musicians, painters, and writers from Huntington, where she lived until she was 18 years old. Parker, who now lives in Brooklyn, attended Oberlin College’s Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where she graduated with a degree in flute performance.
In her early 30s, Parker began selling her hand-painted designs. Sales took off, and she launched her own design brand in 2001. She has sold her designs to many leading retailers in the home furnishing sector in the United States and England, establishing her name within the design world.
Her work has been sold at popular retailers such as Macy’s, Harrods and Bloomingdale’s, and even appeared in the film "Boyhood" and on TV shows such as "Desperate Housewives." But even more meaningful, her work has been a vehicle for healing, hanging on hospital room walls and evoking hope and joy.
“The thing that accompanied me all throughout my life was a paintbrush, which from a very young age you could not rip out of my hands,” Parker says. “Color has always been a driving force for me as a painter.”
It’s those signature bright, gleeful colors in her work that landed her the opportunity to create the two paintings for the USPS, which will adorn wedding invitation envelopes this coming year.
“I think these stamps will be extremely popular,” Noyes says. “Not only for use on wedding invitations but for those who want to send letters with a dash of floral beauty for all kinds of occasions.”
