The End of the ATC Adventure

Well, I've come to the end of my year long adventure of creating an Artist Trading Card a Day for the entire year of 2008. An Artist Trading Card is a small work of art always measuring 2.5 by 3.5 inches and can be created with just about any type of medium. I just posted the last 5 ATCs ahead of time on Flickr. As I look back at all 365 ATCs, I reminisced about what was happening in my life on the day that I made specific ATCs.

The first ATC I made on January 1, 2008

The last ATC......December 31, 2008

This year wasn't all that hot for me, I had a lot of stress which caused some health problems however creating my ATC and gave me something to focus on and brought me through some tough times. Art is like that, it's therapeutic it's cathartic and it's healing. I've often said about creating art....."when I'm sad I create art and it makes me feel happy and when I'm happy and create art it makes me feel even better". Art has always been there for me whether it's using a stick to draw a picture in the sand or creating a mixed media project with 6 different meduims. There is a quote from aritst Hans Hoffman, which to me sums it all up, "A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world." I look back at the 365 ATCs and I can tell you what was happening in my world when I was creating each and every one of them.

Ok, enough serious stuff! Now you ask what does it take to create 365 ATCs? Here are some statistics:
3193.75 square inches of cardstock for the backing, which is 266.145 square feet of cardstock

4 medium sized jars of Liquitex Gel Medium

3 paint brushes to apply the glue

1 computer printer cartridge

$85 (estimated) in stamps to mail the ATCs all over the world

2 nail brushes (to get the dried gel meduim off my fingers)

Interesting people I've met, traded with and even became friends with...... priceless!

If you'd like to see all 365 Artist Trading Cards click here! I still have many available and if you see one you like, email me with the date and title of it and I'll send it to you if it hasn't been mailed off already. It was great fun and I'm happy I stuck to it. Hmmmmm, I'm wondering what I should do for 2009?!?!? Any suggestions?

A Year of Artist Trading Cards

Starting on January 1st I embarked on a personal project called "A Year of ATCs" in which I will make an artist trading card a day for a whole year. All of them are available for trade, my goal is to trade or just give them all away. I like to give things away, it makes me feel good. I'll post a week of them at a time on a blog entry once a week but if you'd like to see the new one posted for that day go to my Flickr photos.