ATCs Galore

A few of my earliest ATCs

Two and a half years ago Sue, a good writer and artist friend of mine, suggested I accompany her to a Saturday morning Artist Trading Card swap meet at a local art gallery. She said, “Bring some cards to trade.”

“I have some,” I told her and wondered if I’d have time to make more, some fresh ones for my first time to trade.

She’d explained the card-trading movement had its beginning in Switzerland when an artist invited his artist friends over to a party. Each was to bring enough artist trading cards to swap one-for-one with the other guests. Apparently the party was a success since many years later people around the world are gathering to swap cards and sometimes to make them together. They’re sent in the mail, traded on line, and sometimes show up in galleries like at the Denver County Fair.

“How cool,” I thought in uncharacteristic informal expression. Artists can meet each other, enjoy the company of the sometimes like-minded, appreciate each other’s latest approaches, and go home with samples of the other’s work. They no longer have to swap paintings they’d rather sell at a gallery for full price or feel that they traded a better piece for a lesser piece. The small size of the cards prevents the big feeling of unevenness. “I get it,” as Sue would say. “Genius,” I thought and started packing my bag of cards to share.

We arrived early, before the gallery opened or others had arrived. “I want to swap with you first,” Sue said while we were still seated in the car. “I want to pick first, before the others can.” We each reached for our stashes of cards. She looked at mine, smiled and shaking her head said, “You can’t trade these,” They’re too large.”

“Oh, I thought you meant we would trade greeting cards.”

“Well you can’t take them to the trade, but I want to trade with you anyway. One on one.”

“Sure,” I said both embarrassed and thankful. Sue went on to tell me more about the cards, that they were 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches like baseball trading cards. She had assumed I’d look up ATCs (shorthand) on line and get the specs. (Oh how little she knew me!) After trading with Sue, I went inside and watched the proceedings. Sure enough people came in with boxes, bags, or folders of cards. Many of the cards were on the same theme although differently interpreted. I watched as people swapped. “I’ll trade you one.”

“Oh, I found three I like a lot. Can you trade me three?”

“I’d be delighted.”

There was no exchange of money, just cards. One card for one card. How nice, and what a good way for artists to get together, laughing, having their work admired, being delighted at what they discovered flowing from one another’s imaginations. It seemed the perfect setting and celebration of art for people who often are short on funds but long on ideas and feelings.

That was the first time. On the way back to my house Sue told me about the studio of a man I had met at the gallery. “It’s really a compound with two large studios, several galleries, and thousands of collected things arranged carefully. The whole place is actually a work of art.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but a couple of weeks later she took me to his studio compound for another kind of ATC gathering. It was “swap, make, and swap some more,” an evening lasting about four hours, beginning with a swap of cards made to a theme, then a workshop without a theme but in which participant could rifle through many of his supplies (including a huge drawer of pre-cut ATC grounds arranged by color and texture) and make, hopefully, a card to trade with each other person present. Although I was pleased to be there, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the host’s orderly array of supplies and his extreme generosity. The place and company brought out in me an artist I barely knew! I laughed and ate and drank with other artists in this magical place making friends and art. What a life.

Since then I have attended many such gatherings and traded hundreds of cards. I now have quite a stack of loose leaf binders with plastic pages, nine pockets each, representing the work of many, many artists. When it’s too cold to go out to a museum or gallery for inspiration, I simply go to my little studio and take down the volumes of work by these people I now know. I know their styles, their approaches, and notice their changes and experiments. I have source books of actual art to inspire me in my own quest for creating beauty, expressing my feelings, practicing my techniques (in miniature), and creating a medium for trade.

Eggs was that trade's ATC theme

To read more specific information about the groups I participate in, go online to Denver Make & Trade ATCers. Check out other web sites with cards from around the world. Feast your eyes and get out the scissors and paper and glue and pens and paint and sand and whatever else you have around the house. Make and trade an ATC.

Some cacti ATCs I made

Denver, February 2014