Ken Turmel, a Route 66 enthusiast best known for his “PostmarkArt” featuring postmarks from dozens out outposts, died Tuesday. He was 69.
Turmel, a longtime Oklahoma City resident, had just completed treatments for throat cancer, according to his wife of 30 years, Melissa, and several friends.
According to his website, Turmel was born in Santa Monica, California, just a few blocks from the western end of Route 66, and graduated from El Camino Real High School in the nearby San Fernando Valley.
He joined the Air Force, and after his discharge, he became a longtime postal service worker.
Here’s how his PostmarkArt came to fruition:
In the spring of 1993, the Oklahoma “Cherokee Strip Land Run” postage stamp was introduced by the United States Postal Service. That sparked Ken to put his music career on the back burner for a while, in order to concentrate on a “new idea” that he had. Ken will always admit that this new idea came to him in a dream from the Lord. He woke up one morning and promptly put his dream to work and the result is what he calls “PostmarkArt.”
His “PostmarkArt” artworks consist of mint postage stamps placed on colorful, hand-painted backgrounds of state border outlines. These very large pieces of artworks are then hand-carried to hundreds of post offices throughout the United States, specifically for the purpose of acquiring historically significant postmarks to be placed directly atop the original artwork background. Each postmark is inked in its own city and mile by mile the artwork blossoms into a wonderful collage masterpiece. His methodical procedure of personally delivering each artwork to each and every post office is never compromised. The artworks are never mailed to accomplish this tedious task. Besides that, creating a large PostmarkArt project is extremely time and cost-sensitive, and Ken would never let the original artworks get very far from his sight.
The “pictorial postmarks” which were placed on the artworks, commemorating specific celebrations along Ken’s postmarking routes, have all expired and have been destroyed by the postal service according to regulations. This means that the PostmarkArts become historical documents at the same time as they are being created. These works have been acclaimed to be a “first of its kind” by over 1000 postmasters and postal officials, including many confirmations from various museums, collectors and professional artists.
In addition to Route 66, he created postmark art of Texas’ sesquincentennial, an “Oklahoma and Friends” piece, the aforementioned “Oklahoma Land Rush” artwork and more.
Turmel also became a tour guide for many groups traveling Route 66. He was a big fan of historic two-lane highways, the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, and motel swimming pools.
(Image of Ken Turmel in 2010 via Facebook; excerpted image of his Route 66 PostmarkArt)