Young Artists Enjoy Morning of Creating and Trading

While some children will be busy swapping Pokémon and Yu-gi-Oh cards on the playgrounds next week, art students will have the rarest of the rare in their decks – cards created by their own hands as part of a "Trading Card Madness" workshop at the Garden Art Studio.

Artist trading cards are miniature works of art approximately the same size as a modern baseball card. Cards are produced in various media such as pencils, pens, markers, watercolor, acrylic paints and more. 

The concept of artist trading cards can be traced back to the 16th century. At the time, they were mostly portraits and served as modern day wallet photos with artists traded art cards to learn more about each other's techniques during the impressionist period. A Zurich artist initiated a resurgence of this trend in 1997 spawning thousands of new traders.

The history seemed irrelevant to 11-year-old Mark who focused on how much fun it was to create the cards. "I just like the size," he said.  "It's fast and easy to make something you like."

Students were warmed up with practice sketches and they were off creating original works of art, small editions and more importantly all originals. Subject matter varied from sports icons, animals, abstract designs, nature and more.

Eight-year-old Julie agreed and wasn't planning on trading any of her creations. Her older sister Sarah was busy working on some celestial inspired scenes. One of Julie's creations depicted a multi-layered birthday cake dripping with color. Teacher Lisa Fazio Cotroneo expressed interest in trading with Julie who wasn't initially a taker but ultimately created a duplicate and traded with Miss Lisa for one of her creations.

Brothers Matthew and Brian were also proud of their creations, which focused on different types of animals.

Students made up to eight cards which were then laid out on the large workspace. Each artist had a chance to trade one of their cards for someone else's. Trading started slow as the children had a hard time letting go but eventually caught on with some students coming back for multiple trades. Others like 12-year old Peter decided they were going to keep their own art, especially one inspired by his dog and cat.

The workshop is part of a series offered by Mineola artist Lisa Fazio Cotroneo. The goal of the workshops is to introduce students to a variety of different art projects and mediums, allowing students to have fun while discovering the depth of their own talent.

For further information visit: www.thegardenartstudio.com, call 516-742-7662 or email the studio atthegardenartstudio@gmail.com.