# 5766 - 2023 First-Class Forever Stamp - The Art of the Skateboard: Skateboard Design by MasPaz (Frederico Frum), Tan & White

U.S. #5766
2023 Jaguar Design
Art of the Skateboard

• Pictures a skateboard deck with stylized jaguar by Colombian-born artist Federico “MasPaz” Frum.
• One of four stamps in the Art of the Skateboard set
• Celebrates the artistic diversity in the skateboarding world

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Art of the Skateboard
Value:  63¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue:  March 24, 2023
First Day City:  Phoenix, Arizona
Quantity Issued:  18,000,000
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method:  Offset
Format:  Pane of 20
Self-Adhesive

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp, along with the other three Art of the Skateboard stamps, was issued to celebrate the artistry of skateboard decks.

About the stamp design:  The design was created by Federico Frum, more commonly known by the name “MasPaz”.  Frum was born in Colombia and grew up in Washington, DC.  He uses his heritage as inspiration for his art (his specializes in murals).  The stylized jaguar stamp was created using a photograph of Frum’s skateboard deck design.

First Day City:  The Art of the Skateboard stamps were issued in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Desert West Skate Plaza during the Cowtown Phoenix Am skateboarding contest, an appropriate choice for the stamps’ First Day of Issue Ceremony.

About the Art of Skateboard set:  According to the USPS, “These four stamps celebrate the Art of the Skateboard with vibrant designs that capture skateboarding’s excitement and reflect the diversity and influences of the four artists whose work is featured:

Crystal Worl, an Alaskan artist used a blue and indigo salmon formline design to express her Tlingit/Athabascan heritage.

William James Taylor Jr., a self-taught Virginia artist created an energetic red and orange graphic abstraction.

Federico “MasPaz” Frum, a Colombian-born, Washington, DC-raised muralist painted a stylized jaguar.

Di’Orr Greenwood, of Arizona represented her Navajo culture with a turquoise-inlaid skateboard that features eagle feathers and colors of the rising or setting sun.”

History the stamp represents:  Skateboard deck art was originally inspired by street art and graffiti.  One of the 2023 Art of the Skateboard stamps pictures a similar design style.  It was created by Federico Frum (more commonly known as Mas Paz) and pictures a stylized jaguar.  Frum describes his work as indigenous contemporary art.  He utilizes graffiti and standard painting to achieve his particular style.

Frum was born in Bogota, Colombia, but was adopted as a baby and raised in Arlington, Texas.  In his adult years, he traveled to South America several times and was inspired by indigenous art and culture there.  After a trip to Brazil, he said “I started kind of playing with this indigenous typography kind of style, which wasn’t graffiti letters but more like line work letters… [It] kind of looked like maybe Mayan hieroglyphic lines with actually letters.  So that was really fun.”

“Mas Paz” became Frum’s tag name while he was in New York.  The phrase, Spanish for “more peace,” means a lot to Frum.  He tries to bring it through in all his works.  In fact, he donates five percent of all his project earnings to the orphanage he lived in as a young child, La Casa de la Madre y el Niño.  Frum has gained attention worldwide and his works have been pictured at the Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, and much more.