My Artistic History

I took art in High School but only for 1 maybe 2 years.  I never really took to it back then. So I am not an artist who can brag about having dabbled in it all of my life, like many of my fellow sisters' in art can say, but it was reintroduced to me by my sister in law, but not in the form of drawing, but fully, totally and wholly in style of paper.  Hence why my blog name, The Paper Manipulator.

It actually came at a good time because we were caring for our dear friend who was like a brother to us.  Alan was diagnosed with fatal kidney cancer. We cared for him from time of diagnosis to death.  The entire experience was pretty harsh, but one I would happily do all over again for anyone in a similar situation if the circumstances were all correct.  But I can't tell you enough how much art is great therapy for such a loss...

Many of you may have heard me say ATC a million times in the last 8 years. So you might be saying to yourself, what in the heck is an ATC?  Well an ATC is simply an Artist Trading Card (ATC), your canvas is a sturdy piece of card stock that is 2.5 x 3.5" in size, and are traded any where in the world.  Artists create, trade and collect in organized swaps in online groups around the world or in person.

The idea came from trading baseball or hockey cards but with an artistic twist. ATCs is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss Artist M. Vanci Stimemann in 1997.  He called it a Collaborative Cultural Performance.

When I first started making ATC's after my sister in law told me about them, I caught on like wildfire and started collecting things to make them with.  Acrylic Paints, paint brushes, protective sleeves, envelopes, what ever I could.  I found though that back then, (since 2008) that there were so very few videos about techniques and products that I should have got on the bandwagon when I started to get more involved in blogging and keeping things a whole lot more organized, as I could have been at the bottom of the ladder and making loads of money like Tim Holtz or some of these other more famous mixed media artists.

So not having any experience in art at all, I didn't know any better about techniques or nothing.   So I figured that all I could do were collage and something with acrylic paint. Amazing how time has fast forwarded and exploded in the most amazing world of mixed media.  Now people are posting journal pages, technique pages and all kinds of wonderful and amazing things.

My absolute most favourite thing about making, trading and collecting ATCs is getting Happy Mail...which you should all be aware of by now.  I belong to a few groups on Facebook, Swap Bot, and 1 yahoo group.  I used to belong to many more but sometime politics are too much for me to care about.  But because of difficult times, I've been forced to slow down big time to a minimal number of swaps per month.  Many times I have gone a wee bit over budget mostly because I just can't help myself.

Has anyone ever wondered what my very first ATC looked like?  Quite surprising actually.  Using a mosaic technique background and a few small purchases from the dollar store I was able to put something fun together.  I have made many an ATC since, some good, some bad, some really good and some really bad...lol...you get my point, same as getting returns, some some are awesome and some not so awesome.

And here are two of my most recent ATCs that I have made, I sure have come a long way, haven't I?

and Here is one of my most all time favourite ATCs that I have ever received.  Isn't my teacup poodle just the most adorable thing you ever saw?  lol...so cute!

I have since dabbled in more than just ATCs, I have participated in a Round Robin, I have made journal pages, I have produced a video about something I've made, played in many many many different types of swaps and have art from many countries around the world, and I LOVE it.  I am now currently putting all of my ATCs in binders in order by artist, and my ATC collection is my pride and joy.  Oh and the best perk about being an artist and getting to swap with all of these talented people are over the world is that we are all like one great big happy family!  One I plan to be a part of for a very long time. 

Lately I have been dabbling in water colour painting and mixing my own colours.  LOVE It so much...its amazing what one can do with the right bit of direction.  

Well that's a wrap for tonight.  Tomorrow we head to  Toronto & Embro and then back to Toronto before coming back home again.