Artist Trading Cards of Tape

Add caption

Last Thursday I enjoyed a wonderful evening in the studio of Jerry Simpson at an Artist Trading Card "Trade 'em; Make 'em and Trade 'em." Well something like that. The evening began with trades of cards made with tape. I used tape to make print plates which I then printed onto printing paper. Then I collaged various other things into the result. Pictured are three cards that I called "Taped Music" that used cutouts from an old German hymnbook. 

Other people showed once again the vast world of ideas and applications. I traded my cards for others make from tape. Some used commercial tapes simply but artistically taped to the cards. Others were more adventuresome in ways I cannot adequately describe. One artist made monoprints, another collages, another mixed media with wrapped tape around tiny frames with dolls inside. You'd have to see them. As always the ideas seemed endless and the company even more than fine. 

Denver, 2016

Printing from Tapes

Tape and acrylic paint by Phillip Hoyle 2016

An experiment with making prints off of tape left me with an interesting piece of art. I adhered masking tape, artists tape, electrician tape, Scotch tape and a few other tapes to a couple of pieces of board in order to make some Artist Trading Cards. I put the paint directly from the tubes onto the tape-covered board and rolled away with my brayer. By the time I cleaned it all up, I had printed quite a few cards--some to make ATCs, others to serve as backgrounds for more ATCs, some I don't quite know what to do with. AND I have from one of my tape plates this nice horizontal piece of art measuring 4" x 11". The rolled-on acrylic paints made interesting fluid designs to contrast with the rigid marks of the tapes themselves. 

Sometimes an artist just lucks out. I guess I'll keep this one for myself. May you have good luck in your artistic efforts.

Denver, 2016 

Birch Bark Art Cards

I got the idea from my grandson Matthew. He found birch bark pieces on the grass where we were staying in Kansas City a few weeks ago and cut out a card on which he wrote a thank you note to his grandma who was hosting us at a beautiful hotel.

I saw more bark scraps on the grass and, following his initiative, collected some for several experiments of my own.

The birch bark in these cards was printed on my little copy machine. Then I found an unusual petroglyph from Ojibwe country where native folk used to make birch bark canoes. (Some still make them.) I cut a block and printed an approximation of the petroglyph onto the prints.

I’m sure I’ll trade them soon if I haven’t already done so when you read this! (Most of them traded on Saturday at CORE New Art Space monthly swap.)

The source of my idea!

I love art and even more than that I love doing artwork. And I love my many artistic grandchildren! 

Denver 2016

Back to Art Work: New Artist Trading Cards

Colorado Flora Artist Trading Cards
Phillip Hoyle 2016

Due to a terrible combination of a cold, seasonal allergies, and who knows what all, I did not make my trip to Missouri last week. I haven’t been walking around prairies and forests of Mid-MO to draw plants. Since I promised something, though, I did make four ATC cards of Colorado wildflowers. Actually they represent the only artwork I have accomplished in the past four weeks—the longest stretch of not doing the work (the work of art) I have had in years and years.

I went to work and made some rather interesting cards with rather interesting results. At least I think so!

I am quite a bit better and am making a modest comeback into the world of flora art working on mono-print backgrounds with an assortment of pens and Prismacolor pencils. I have many other plans for projects and hope I continue my recovery. Who knows what will happen.

Then, before long, I’ll have to take up family responsibilities and see what’s happening in Missouri.

I hope you have a good week. Do something artful or at least artsy.

Colorado wildflowers
Artist Trading Cards Phillip Hoyle 2016

Denver 2016

Springtime flowers and joy

Artist Trading Cards of Missouri springtime flora
by Phillip Hoyle 2016

In a couple of days I'll be on my way to Mid-Missouri to see my family and to engage in a couple of art projects, one a writing project, the other drawing wildflowers. I did something similar last May and enjoyed myself and the work immensely. 

The family things also involve creativity. I'll attend the graduation of a grandson who has been studying welding and metalwork at Missouri State Technical School in Lynn MO. I'll also attend a baby shower looking forward to the birth of a second great grandchild! Both celebrations will mark celebrations of new beginnings. 

Artist Trading Cards of Missouri springtime flora
Phillip Hoyle 2016

While there I plan to finish two chapters in the manuscript I've been working on for a year. I plan also to draw, draw, draw in Jefferson City Parks, the Runge Center, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, and my son's farm. Of course there will be wonderful conversations, meals, card games, and laughter. I plan to post something from there to keep you abreast. Hopefully I'll also experience success.

Denver 2016

Dance, Play, and Sing

Here's the story I wrote for my Storytelling Group. Sorry it's so long and that there are no pictures. Our topic...

A Meaningful Vacation


I didn’t think of it as a vacation, just a quick trip to Kansas City for a grandchild’s senior recital at the University of Missouri there. However, due to a large snowstorm in Denver the trip was prolonged and also took me to Mid-Missouri, into the heart of my family.

When I arrived at KCI that late afternoon, I headed directly to the Starbucks Coffee craving a cup. Waiting there were my ex-wife Myrna and a grandson Genaro. I got my fix and away we went to a nearby motel. We ate a light supper and then played cards.

In the morning Myrna told me she had been ill all night. When she felt up to it, we drove into Kansas to visit my youngest sister whom I had not seen for several years. Her husband had been extremely ill but was making a fine recovery although he was experiencing lingering effects. We had nice conversations and good food at their home. Back at the hotel Genaro and I went to the lobby for a light supper of chicken and noodles. Myrna asked us to bring her some if it was brothy. We enjoyed eating and did return with some food for Myrna who really enjoyed sipping at it. Again we played cards, a simple game called Cabin Fever, the game that has a strategy but not one that overpowers to the point one cannot have fun playing it. The conversations continued. I even won a game.

The next morning we shopped at the Country Club Plaza and then moved into the Westin Hotel at the Crown Center in downtown Kansas City, MO. There my daughter (Genaro’s mom) and three more of her children joined us. The kids stayed in the rooms watching TV while Myrna, Desma, and I roamed the Crown Center shopping area. In the late afternoon we went to Loose Park near the Plaza to join more of our family and friends at a picnic. The conversations there were very interesting, conversations with in-laws, college-attending grandchildren and their friends (a biologist, a musician, a Mexican American business major, a Viet Namese pre-med student, a culinary arts student in her internship, and a dancer). Then we drove to the old church where the ballet—the main reason for gathering in Kansas City—would be performed. We attended a pre-reception of snacks, cookies, and soft and hard drinks, met new folk, saw other friends of the family who had come for the event, and heard a live jazz combo. I really enjoyed listening and watching my very animated grandson Kalo play the stand up bass.

Then the main event of the evening, the performance of the ballet “To Some Transparent End,” a stage performance conceived by Kalo and his best friend Abbie, scored by Kalo, choreographed by Abbie—both students at the Kansas City Music and Dance Conservatory at UMKC. The work was a 35-minute program with eleven dancers, three singers, and six instruments. The setting was a city bus with riders coming and going and doing things people do while riding through the city. I watched with keen interest since I have been a bus rider for the past seventeen years. I recognized familiar bus characters with their body movements and attitudes, their appropriate and inappropriate actions. Of course there were no words except the Latin texts the singers provided, all related to the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, chapter four, the familiar “To everything there is a season.” Abbie told me that one requirement for the dancers was to take at least three rides on a city bus. The characters they observed and interpreted were crazy, thoughtful, high, confused, pointless, depressed, aggressive, intimidating, wooing, sexual, shy, freaked out…all these things recognizable in the action of the dance; even the surprising death at the very end of the show. I had seen all these things on Denver buses.

The applause was enthusiastic from the crowd of around 125 people. My grandson couldn’t hold back his smile although unlike the dancer Abbie he seemed not to know what to do with his hands. The two were happy. A music professor told my son Michael that Kalo and Abbie had really raised the bar for subsequent senior recitals at the Conservatory.

I was scheduled to leave the next day, but due to the snow my flight was cancelled. That’s why I ended up in Mid-MO for a few more days. There I played the part of pater familias, something I am supposed to enjoy but which never has attracted me. Oh well, we do what we have to do. I put up with it and did a good job. There was more music at a Jefferson City bar called The Mission. My eldest grandson, Evan, opened their Saturday evening RAP Fest with the National Anthem. He sang unaccompanied, ornamenting the melody as if he were on “The Voice.” The largely African American audience stood up as the song began and uttered sounds of approval at his improvisations. Then he sang a duet with a huge black man, Evan singing a nice melody and the other man rapping. The two of them had composed the quite affecting piece, “We’re All American.” Then I heard a lot more RAP. We left when two tall young men came in. My grandson recognized them as people he had arrested the month before in a neighboring town where he works on the police force. We left right away. On the way out of the bar though, I was hugged by three very large black men who just love my grandson.

While in Jefferson City I got to hang out with my daughter Desma, play lots more cards with grandkids, eat interesting meals with my ex-wife Myrna, and hear way too much noise. I started missing the very quiet people I live with in Denver.

For me, rich meanings arose from from the blending of generations, music, responsibility, love, and other complications, all things I could enjoy on my prolonged vacation in Missouri due to a turn in the weather and the luxury of my current retired status.

© 25 April 2016

Artist Trading Cards on Geography

ATCs from painted maps and collage of details from old etchings.
Phillip Hoyle 2016

The geography theme at CORE New Art Space trade yesterday seemed to work well for just about everyone. quite a few artists featured maps in their work, I included. I collected ATCs with road maps, city street maps, nautical maps, and pirate treasure maps. By contrast, one prolific artist brought a group of over 200 ATCs--cartoon drawings of great variety and imagination. the artists who gather always amuse and by their work stretch my imagination.

ATCs with map and photographic cutouts collaged.
Phillip Hoyle 2016

My ATCs were mostly of Colorado border lands: the CO/NEB border, the CO/WYO border, the
CO/UT border, the CO/NM border, and the four corners area CO/NM/AZ/UT. In all I was pleased with the trades. Saturday's time was great fun with good relationships, and satisfying artistic challenges.

Denver 2016