FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                Contact: Gretchen M. Wintermantel
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007                                                                        202.225.6511          

 Kanjorski Visits With Jim Thorpe Artist Commissioned To Design Postage Stamps

WASHINGTON - Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) today met with Jim Thorpe artist Victor Stabin, who was commissioned by the United States Postal Service to design four postage stamps depicting famous American scientists. The stamps were released into circulation in May 2005, and Mr. Stabin has been commissioned to design four additional stamps for the series that will be released next year.

"I am pleased that Victor is continuing his work designing postage stamps, an honor that is bestowed on only a select group of artists. Having an artist of his caliber strengthens the art community in Northeastern Pennsylvania tremendously," Congressman Kanjorski said.

Mr. Stabin presented a signed artist's print depicting enlarged versions of the four stamps to be displayed on loan in Congressman Kanjorski's Washington office. The four scientists in this series include geneticist Barbara McClintock, mathematician John von Neumann, thermodynamicist Josiah Willard Gibbs, and physicist Richard Feynman. Mr. Stabin has designed more than a dozen postage stamps, including the 2004 commemorative postage stamp of composer Henry Mancini.

Mr. Stabin was in Washington with his wife, Joan Morykin, and their daughters, Skyler (age 4), and Arielle (age 3). The couple owns and operates the Carbon County Cultural Project, a former wireworks factory they have converted into art galleries and artist studios, in downtown Jim Thorpe.