A wandering artist — my artist trading cards of week 10, 2024
In case you’re not familiar with artist trading cards — or ATC’s — here’s a little introduction. The concept dates back to 1996 and was invented by an artist called M. Vänçi Stirnemann who ran an exhibition of 1200 of such cards in 1997, ending in a trading session. The idea is simple: artists create small artworks the size of a traditional trading card (2.5"x3.5" or 64x89mm) to trade with other artists — they are not supposed to be sold. For more detailed informations on the origin of ATC’s, see this article on Wikipedia.
I started making ATC’s back in 2001 and made them for several years. I traded a bunch, maybe lost a few and stored the rest — haven’t counted them, but I probably have several hundreds in my storage somewhere. As demand for my paintings grew I had less time to make ATC’s and eventually I stopped completely. When we moved to the coast two years ago I started working smaller again because of limited space, making A4-size pieces or smaller. When I got back into collages, which I had abandoned over the years as well, I rediscovered ATC’s, which seem to be a big thing in the collage community. And that’s what got me going again — this was in the beginning of March. The problem is that I make way more of these than I can or want to share on social media, and that’s why I decided to publish them here grouped per weekly creation, but I have some catching up to do. Hence: these are my ATC’s of week 10 of 2024…
I have been doing abstract collages for a long time and for some reason the more structured, geometric kind comes natural to me. This style resembles designs from the Bauhaus movement and mid-century modern art. My goto material is wallpaper samples, though I sometimes mix in regular coloured paper and even failed monotypes.
Seeing some quilts on Instagram and particularly the fact that many people make them with left-overs, inspired me to do the same with bits and pieces I had lying around — I’m a hoarder, which not only means that I accumulate things, but also that I rarely throw anything away. I chose for striped patterns, resulting in compositions resembling artwork from De Stijl, a Dutch art movement of which Piet Mondrian was probably the most famous member.
The striped patterns evolved into squares, rectangles and various other forms, and to add a distinct element I chose for barcodes. Looking back that may not have been the best idea, as I have been hoarding these ever since, resulting in way more than I could possibly use.
Another favourite topic of mine is landscapes. I did them in various styles as a painter, but rarely in collage, until recently. I always work with what I’ve got and I guess I never really had many landscape images to work with before. Landscapes were not hard to compose on my regular size (A4), but on the tiny scale of ATC’s they are somewhat of a challenge. Making them with some kind of twist is the fun part, though I don’t always aim for that. In this first series I try to keep everything in proportion, with an odd element to make it interesting.
The second series is more experimental, mixing very abstract elements with a landscape detail or making them surreal/absurd.
I found a box of old postcards, of which I used elements in some of the cards above, but the back with the stamp inspired me to create a country series, combining elements refering to the country stamp. It proved harder than expected; this is the first in the series and I currently only have four of them.
If you make ATC’s too (collage or otherwise — I make other kinds too), feel free to follow me on Instagram. Due to high postage costs I no longer trade by mail, only in person. So if you want to trade and you are in the neighbourhood (see my Instagram or Facebook page for my current location), just send me a message.
