Artist Trading Cards are individual art miniatures which pass hand to hand. Their current popularity among artists and hobbyists was sparked by M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who began trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997, and popularized ATCs via the internet. [1] Artists have produced miniatures for trade or self-promotion in many eras and places, and the current trend is thus part of this larger context. Nevertheless, at the present time, the phrase Artist Trading Card is usually taken to refer to cards of the type promoted by Stirnemann. The only rule for these cards is their size (2.5 x 3.5 inches, the same as commercial trading cards, such as baseball cards and cards for trading card games). There are, however, certain conventions usually observed by those who make and trade these cards, such as the expectation that they be traded, not sold, and that they be created as unique works or small limited editions of prints. Artists generally sign and date the back, and may also include a title and contact information. The face-to-face trading session is considered an integral part of the concept, although many people find each other via the internet and trade by mail. Artist Trading Cards are typically made on a base of card stock. However, ATCs have been created on metal, stiffened fabric, plastic, clay, glass, balsa wood, leather, embroidery canvas, acetate, heavy watercolor paper, and many other materials. The art on the cards can be done in any media: textile arts, pencil, watercolor, acrylic, oil, collage, scratch board, mixed media, assemblage, digital art, calligraphy, beadwork, rubber stamps, carved soft block stamps, pen and ink, colored pencil, airbrush, pastels, and many others - anything artists use.
Outside the Box ATCs
The only standard requirement for an ATC is that its height and width measurements be 2.5" x 3.5", either portrait or landscape orientation. The sky can be the limit for every other aspect of the art. In the big, wide world of ATCs, there is no thickness limit, either, but people customarily make them thin enough to fit inside the standard card collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. Some people are sticklers about archival qualities, but art does not necessarily have to be "forever" so many people use whatever materials that fit their artistic needs. It can be a little book, a small box full of treasures, an expanding accordion pleated...something, whatever you can imagine that will fold up into, or compress to, or hide behind a 2.5" x 3.5" "cover" or facade
Art card, editions and originals
An offshoot of Artist Trading Cards are the "art card, editions and originals" (ACEO). ACEOs originated when some artists began to create cards to sell, in addition to trading among themselves. The selling of these cards is a sore point with some ATC enthusiasts; but, of course, the provision that cards should not be sold is not an enforceable one. Trading cards in other areas such as sports have also been traded and sold. The practice is meant to explore the temporal miniature in art, to augment the income, increase visibility, circulate small works more widely, as well as increase their patronage.
