Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Artist Trading Cards

The trouble with having hobbies is having the time to devote to them. Work gets in the way! But, of course, without work there are no funds to pay for hobbies. I have been collecting postage stamps since the late 50s. Not too many people do that anymore, so I buy stamps from approval books now instead of trading.

Genealogy is also time consuming, but I really enjoy it from time to time, especially when I am traveling to or through places where my ancestors lived. I also take a few classes on memoir and history writing. I have collected and verified the data on over 1500 individuals on my blood and branch lines back to 1656.

I have been creating handmade books, everything from "simple" origami folded books to full hard cover bound books, for the past ten years. I have participated in at least one or two workshops at the University of Utah every year. Internet searching for Book Arts sites lead me to ATCs or Artist Trading Cards.

Artist Trading Cards are small works of art, 2.5 x3.5 in., or 64 x 89 mm if you are into metric. ATCs were first created in 1996 by Swiss artist M. VÄNÇI STIRNEMANN. The idea was generated by the need to show his larger works in an exhibit without the expense of a printed catalog. The first show was in Zurich, Switzerland, in April and May of 1997, where Stirnemann displayed 1200 cards. Those who attended the showing could take any of the cards as long as they replaced it with one of their own creation, thus the concept of trading and not selling the cards.

Cards are designed as one-of-a-kind originals; a series of originals around a single theme; or an small, numbered edition of one original design. On the back of each card is the artist's name, some type of contact information, e-mail or snail-mail address, the title of the work and the number, i.e., 1/5, 2/5 etc. I also like to put the date of creation. The back of a card, the "signature," is often as artistic as the front of the card.

I generally make editions of two, one to keep and one to trade, or editions of eight or ten. I use collage, wax crayons, water color, inks, acrylics, scherenschitte and computer manipulations to create my cards. Here are ten of my cards. These copies in some cases do not look like they are the correct size, 2.5 x 3.5 in., but in reality they are.






7 comments:

emma said...

Dad... you are way too creative and talented! Why couldn't you have passed on to your kids!

rebekah said...

speak for yourself, emma!

And I'll speak for myself-why couldn't you have passed your creativity on to me!!!!!

Teishi Kennedy said...

My mom makes and trades these artist cards, too. Has she traded any cards with you yet? Did you even know that she does this? (Because she seems to do everything crafty... FYI Emma and Bekah, it's hard to be anyone's daughter.) Your work is really amazing! Teishi

oldlibraryman said...

I know your mother makes cards, but she has never traded with me. As for Emma and Bekah, they have plenty of talent. They just tell themselves that they don't. You should see what they do for their theme parties!

joojool said...

You rock GRANDPA!!! (FROM MT. JORDAN MIDDLE SCHOOL) from: larc5684 (student id)

joojool said...

you are radical

#1Camper said...

Mr. Goodman,
You asked me if I was joojool.
I just barely remebered that joojool was my old username.
Sincerely,
L.A.