Everyone has heard of Leonardo DaVinci. But have any of you heard of M. Vänçi Stirnemann. By the end of this article you will have, but first:

What is an ATC?

In a nutshell:

• ATC’s are original works of art 2.5″x3.5″, or 64×89mm in size.
• ATC’s mustn’t be sold, only exchanged
• ATC’s include on their reverse sides: the name, contact information, title of the ATC and number.
• ATC’s may be: originals, editions or part of a series.

Artist Trading Cards are individual art miniatures made for trading amongst artist, and more recently, artmakers of various disciplines. Artist have always been producing miniature work for self promotion. The current, “Daily Painting Movement” is part of that trend.

But where Daily Paintings bridge the gap between between collector and artist. Artist Trading Cards, bridge the gap between one artist and the next. This is the main goal of the ATC . And It is the reason why Artist Trading Cards are never meant for sale. The only way to get one, is to trade one of your own with an artist.

This are generally done in ‘Trading Sessions’. Where artist meet each other face to face.

“Artist Trading Cards are typically made on a base of card stock. However, ATCs have been created on metal, stiffened fabric, plastic, clay, 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, and many others - anything artists use.” -Wikipedia

Which brings us to the question, who the heck is M. Vänçi Stirnemann?

Who is M. Vänçi Stirnemann?

Vanci Stirnemann, began trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997, and popularized ATCs via the Internet.

A little history…
“The original concept was developed by Swiss artist m. vanci stirnemann, who wanted to make a catalogue to document his activities with other artists. Because the cost of printing a catalogue in hockey-card format was prohibitive, he decided in 1996 to produce 1,200 cards by hand.

This led to the first exhibition of Artist Trading Cards in April 1997. During the show, visitors were encouraged to produce their own cards to trade with Stirnemann and others at the closing reception. From then on, a Trading Session has taken place at INK.art&text on the last Saturday of every month. And other places around the world.” -RAG

Here is more history . And here is some of Stirnemann’s artwork

Originals, Editions or part of a Series.

The main thrust of ATC’s is meeting other artist, and exchanging ideas, this is why on the back of each ATC the artist includes: name, contact information, title of the ATC and number (1/8, 2/8…) if it’s part of an edition.

By definition ATCs are made in limited numbers, often no more than one of a kind. Unique ATCs are called originals; sets of identical ATCs are called editions and are numbered; sets of ATCs that are based on one theme but that are different are called series.

Everyone loves trading cards, Make your own ATC’s and start trading!

Artmakr, will continue to post articles to help you make and trade ATC’s, as well as other bits of information for artist. Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe to the feed: It’s free

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 9:50 am and is filed under Artist Trading Cards (ATC), Learn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.