#1 ATC Swap-Op

This morning I traded my first Artist Trading Cards!  I am now a real artist and art collector!  You are in the presence of awesomeness!

Anyone can make ATC’s!  There are only a few rules.

1. They have to be 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches.

2. They have to be flat enough to fit into the plastic storage sheets.

3. They can’t be sold – only traded.

Those are the only rules!  I love it – free reign to be really creative!  And way in my budget!

Think sports trading cards but art instead.

I could hear the Swap-Op before I even got up the stairs.  So many voices talking and laughing – I think the Art Center was in shock – usually it’s really quiet; withered people looking over their half-moon glasses with folded arms wrapped in gray sweaters with elegantly patched elbows studying some canvas or statue or something.  We peek in the windows and laugh – real art is where the action is!  I took the stairs two at a time and just stood in the door – soaking it all in . . . these are my people – huge T-shirts covered with a cacophony of color, little bits of paper and ribbons decorating the floor and hair, heads and toes bopping to the auditory creativity while the visual blasts.   Scissors, paint, crayons, colored pencils, glue, magazines, and creative ideas all buzz with action.  This must be heaven!

We started with one clear plastic trading storage sheet, our choice of nine backgrounds, and our clean-up color sticker.  I picked two paint drizzled, one paint spattered, two background scenes from a magazine, one variegated blue one, and one plain green one.  They were already cut to 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches so we didn’t have to worry about getting the dimensions goofy.  And then my brain box just took over.  We had two hours to complete nine ATC’s.  I brought two from home so I had more time.  Some kids came in later with all nine already done – some made all of their ATC’s this morning.  It really didn’t matter as long as everyone had nine original ATC’s at 10:45.

That left us with 15 minutes to clean up.  It’s really important that artists take care of their tools.  That means: paint brushes washed; glue closed; crayons, pens, and pencils in their cubbies; scissors hung on the grid; tables wiped; and floor swept.  Actually cleaning up used to be a real pain in art classes because nobody knew what to do and it took forever.  Some kids were standing around doing nothing while some kids – Ahem, yours truly! – did all the work.  We are much more organized at the Art Center!  Everybody learns from the beginning what each clean-up color does – red is paint brush washing, green is sweeping and trash, etc.  We all stick a random color sticker on our shoulders at the beginning and then forget about it until it’s time to clean-up.  We all work together – it’s great!

Four, three, two, one – we counted down just like at New Years – The Swap part of the Swap-Op had finally begun!  Everyone’s nine incredible originals were displayed with their name and we all walked around and decided which ones we liked.  Then we got to talk with everybody else about how they made their mini-masterpieces.  I use a lot of collage, but I really like some of them that had been done on the computer.  I also loved one that was a black and white photograph colored with special pens that seep through the emulsion.  It looked like one of those antique hand-painted photographs.  I got so many great ideas for the next Swap-Op!  We settled into our groups of nine kids.  Each one of us got one of our own ATC’s and one of each of the other artist’s ATCs.  Now I have my first full sheet of ATC’s! 

I am an incredible artist!

I am a knowledgeable art collector!

I might need to get a gray sweater with elbow patches.

I might need to invite them up the stairs to join our little piece of heaven. 

I might even need to practice folding my arms and really looking (instead of laughing).

There is a great guide to making ATC's at Art In Your Pocket!  Check it out!  There are lots of other sites - start with these!  ATCs For All has all sorts of online swaps - for adults and kids!  National Gallery of Art Kids has amazing online art stuff including ATC possibilities!