Artist Trading Cards: The Eyes Have It

Eyes ATC, Phillip Hoyle 2018

A few months ago (or was it a year or so?) I collected some photos of faces with a variety of expressions from some old magazines given me by a friend. I thought of them when “Eyes” came up as the ATC topic. Luckily I found the folder and in a couple of hours made eighteen cards. I collaged them onto grounds made from old paintings adding a few lines. I was pleased. The cards traded quickly.

Eyes ATC, Phillip Hoyle 2018

Sometimes I wish I could show the pieces I traded for, but perhaps they are in someone else’s blog. I do keep them in books sorted by artists, collections that serve as inspiration for my art. They are my own art galleries to visit when the weather is bad.

Eyes ATC, Phillip Hoyle 2018

Artist Trading Cards Galore

Leaf prints came about in my effort to clean up my studio.
I couldn't just throw the pressed leaves in the trash. These
prints resulted and many more similar ones, most of which
I traded with other artists. Perhaps I was longing for
spring that we have actually been enjoying since then.

     After a several month's long delinquency I am returning to this art blog. I have no real understanding how I got lost in the cyber world, but I may pretend it was something more sophisticated than plain old being old! 
     Ever since I got back from my Christmas trip to Missouri I have been unable to get into this blog and seemingly too confused to figure it out. My work on another blog helped me see the light yesterday, so here I am. I'll not post everything I've done in the four-month absence, but I have had good art fun! Hope you, too, have been having a good time. 

Sorry for the angle, but these were made at a workshop.

Figures suggested by Bubble Prints. Lots of bubble print U-tube instructions

A set of Trading Cards from the latest workshop and swap. Another
artist tore things out of magazines for me to work into collages.
Great fun challenges.

Take time to do some artwork or to visit a gallery or museum.
Get together with other artists. I do it several times a month.

It's good to be back online with this blog. 

Christmas Spirit Artist Trading Cards

Holly and Ivy Design for Christmas Cards
Phillip Hoyle 2017

As soon as Halloween was done I started to work on--the thinking part of artwork--a Christmas design I could use on a card. I decided I'd again do a Holly and Ivy design after the old song but one that would contrast with another one I'd done years ago and contrast with the kind of printing I have done the past two years. I returned to relief printing and looked at leaves I have collected and pressed and consulted Google. Eventually drew and decided to cut it on a soft tile.

I needed at least forty cards and decided also to make a few other prints. So around the preparations for Thanksgiving I cut and began to print. I also made quite a few Artist Trading Cards from the design, able to get two cards from each printing. 

Christmas Cards 2017

I'm looking through assorted frames for me other prints on contrasting backgrounds. 

Print on previously prepared bubble print
Phillip Hoyle, 2017

Merry art making for a merry Christmas.

Moon Artist Trading Cards

Moons behind classic Roman figures, ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

The trade and workshop last week was a delight. One artist prepared a CD of “Moon” music that played as we worked, and of course all of the recordings had the word Moon in the titles. We heard music from pop, rock, folk, and jazz genres. There were even some songs that asked for a sing-along.

A more graphic spproach. ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Of course the conversations were a delight. It’s so good for artist to get together to work on their projects. The opening trade of “Moon” theme cards provided varieties of interpretations. Watching one another work stimulated conversation on techniques, products, ideas, and a lot of silliness. 

With ten people present the challenge was to create ten cards. The tenth one leaves one for the artist.

This week I began another project and last night cut a plate for printing. It’s not yet anything to see, but by next week I’ll give you a peek. I’m making Holiday greeting cards and feel like I’m a week ahead. Of course, that all depends on how the printing goes. That is always a bit unpredictable. I’m looking forward to several evenings printing and printing.

Artist Trading Cards of More Predators

Two ATCs of those owl night predators. The designs are a tribute
to Native American artists of times past. Phillip Hoyle 2017

The ATC swap at CORE New Art Space Saturday was a delight. Three new participants brought cards to trade. Their work was nice: one photographic, one strong design work, one beautiful and surprising technically. And there were the regular characters with their humor and wonderful tiny pieces of art. In all the group’s work was related to the topic but none of the trading seemed to take advantage of another.

Eagle in the style of a Wyoming petroglyph site
Phillip Hoyle 2017

For me, one of the nicest things about Artist Trading Cards is that they are traded one card for one card. One does not have to trade but we all do because in our group each artist has a distinctive style or approach to the suggested topic. And there is the freedom that no one has to make their pieces to the topic.

Mountain Lion and Weasel petroglyphs
American southwest  Phillip Hoyle 2017

Now I’m started on my next set of ATCs. The topic is Moon. You can imagine what all we’ll see on Thursday night. I can hardly wait.

Predator Artist Trading Cards

Birds of Prey after a Wyoming group of Petroglyphs
Prints by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Just as I was feeling relief at ending the creepy images of Halloween, I saw our next theme was Predators. The images continue! I knew I needed to get away from aggressive spiders so made a list of animals that are categorized as predators. I narrowed the list to North American animals and decided to cut blocks and print more Native American inspired petroglyphs. Somehow the petroglyph seems more friendly to me than the tooth and claw images of grizzlies catching salmon or lions running down and breaking the necks of their prey.

More Predator ATCs for the trade. Phillip Hoyle, 2017

I printed on commercial papers that I then mounted on card stock. Many Thai papers take the prints easily. I used soft, easy-to-carve blocks available at art and craft supply outlets. The emphasis is on design, its easy transfer, the careful cutting, and the colors of the ground that will be the color of the carved figure. I like that the paint (I used Golden OPEN) application is like the weathering of the rocks like most of the petroglyphs on sandstone in Western American deserts. 

Enjoy these benign predator images that probably symbolized personal power or valor in hunting societies. Maybe there is a bear in you. 

Halloween Artist Trading Cards

ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

The past five years I have been hanging out with artists who have a visual interest in the dark side that I don’t share. Of course, I’ve been around long enough to have my own dark times: the taste of depression, grief over deaths of relatives and loved ones, the end of a fine marriage, leaving a rewarding career, and continuing concerns over the wellbeing of ex-wife, kids, and grandkids. I’ve been with many other people through their losses.

But I don’t like the horrors of Halloween, haunted houses, scare stories, and things that go BOO in dark places. Something in my body says NO to these images that thrill others. I am rather Pollyanna-ish but still I know life is more than the bright side of things.

Eclipse Spider ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

My Artist Trading Cards for this October did involve a lot of dark images—the lunar eclipse, many black widow spiders, even white spiders on black backgrounds. I combined these spiders with some Day of the Dead skulls but avoided the walking dead, bloody fangs, and other such dark images.

Ghosts in my library ATC by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Oh, I do realize the power of the dark but choose to walk on the sunny side of the street in full knowledge that the sun is present only one half of the time. I accept the balance but still I would rather laugh and play within the full sun of loving relationships. In my teenage associations with Native Americans I learned to dance in full daylight to celebrate the eternal mysteries and the beauty of costumed movement. I’ve learned also to dance in the dark to seek a certain kind of mystical intimacy with a partner, to hide certain aspects of communication that seem too precious for open view. But even then I want a candle shining in the dark like a beacon of love, life and, of course, laughter. I like to giggle in the dark.

Laughter—light or manic or simply jolly—leads me to worship Luna as well as Helios, but the cult I most pursue is that of Apollo. Welcome to my sun on this dark eve.

©30 October 2017