An ATC is an Artist trading card.
You make original art on a card that measures 2.5" x 3.5" (64 x 89 mm) which is the size of a standard wallet photograph or typical trading card (baseball, Pokemon, "bubble gum cards").
Once you have some art cards, you trade them with other artists. I give a bunch away, as in this project. But the spirit of the art is that they aren't sold. Of course, some artists do sell their 2.5" x 3.5" work, but may call it an ACEO, "art card, editions and originals."
Cedarseed continues to be the top Google link. Wikipedia has some good links as well. I'm part of a monthly swap at the Creative Mom Podcast.
The quick history is that in 1997, a Swiss artist made and displayed 1000 trading card-sized artworks and put them on display. The public showed an interest. The artist announced hat on the last day of the exhibit, he would trade one of his if the interest party brought one self-made to trade. One in attendance too the idea to Canada, where monthly swaps started.
The movement is really aided by the Internet, as far as finding trading partners and ideas, but face-to-face trades are still really fun, too.
I got started with ATCs nearly one year ago, for my 40th birthday. Seek posts tagged with ATC 40 Project.
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1 comment:
This is such a neat idea! I keep coming up with ideas for them but they haven't made it to paper yet. Mental ATC's? Kind of hard to trade, I guess.
-lynanne (dang blogger)
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