I am world wide

One of my Swedish free art card agents stuck some of my free art cards out in a library in her lovely socialist country.

Sometimes, it all comes together

When I came up with this idea to spread some of my art worldwide, this is exactly how I envisioned this project working:

I sent a dozen free art cards to my friend Debbie in Nicaragua, she began leaving them around for others to find,

a female tourist from Germany was delighted to find one, and she was even more delighted when she found out it was free and that she could keep it.

Not everything has a price.  Not everything is done for money or to make profit.  This free art card project is all about spreading free art.

Free means free.  Fuck capitalism.

Free means free

One of the librarians at my local library found one of my free art cards in a book and was going to give it back to me.  My friend, the head librarian, said he’d take it.  Some people just can’t grasp the concept of someone giving something away for free.  A part of this free art card project is the anti capitalist aspect of it.  Not everything is done for monetary gain and not everything must have a price and be bought and sold.  Things can be free and given away for free.  

Join me!

I’m still looking for more folks to help in my free art card project. Here’s how it works: You send me your name and address and I send you a dozen free art cards to leave where others can find and take them if they wish and you take and send me a few photos of where you leave them. Most people leave them inside books, menus, on bulletin boards, etc. I’m looking for people to help spread them worldwide. Let’s collaborate and spread free art.

Free art card update

The response to my free art card project has been tremendous and super positive. 

Friends in CA, KY, NC, PA, OH, ME, AK, GA, TN, VA, MD, WI, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and the UK have either begun putting my cards out for others to find or they will be doing so shortly. 

The response has been so good in fact that I sent out all the original art cards I made and I'm now in the process of making more.

And of course, I've been putting them out for folks to find in my local library, grocery stores, on public bulletin boards, and wherever else I can get away with putting them.  

The free art card movement lives!

Free art cards out in the wild

On a grocery store bulletin board.

On racks of books in a thrift store.

Who is Art Card? And why does he need to be free?

I've started a new collaborative art project.  It involves people all across the country, and internationally as well, spreading my art cards to others.  And all of the art is free.  

A few years ago I began experimenting with putting my linocut animals, mostly my dog head, cat head, and chicken head, on three by five and similar sized cards.  I experimented with color, shape, and placement.  And as so often goes with my art making, I became a bit manic about it and I ended up making hundreds of them.

I made them and stuck them in various places in my work space and forgot about them until the other day when I hit upon the idea of slipping them into books, magazines, boxes of other cards, and into various antique and thrift stores.  I then had the idea of asking others to do the same where they lived.  I put my idea out there on Facebook and it's taken off.  Friends from CA, Alaska, New York city, PA, SC, NC, WI, Sweden, Canada, and other local to me folks as well offered to help me spread my art.

This project is inspired by Mingering Mike and a lyric from an Elvis Costello song that goes, "The man in the corner of this picture has a sinister purpose.  In the teeming temple of the railroad kings, he's planting a trashy paperback book for accidental purchase containing all the secrets of life and other useless things."

I've begun slipping cards into books at my local library, some bookstores, and will be putting some up on any public bulletin board I can access.  I love the idea that someone will happen upon my free art cards sometime down the road, maybe long after I'm dead and gone and they'll wonder what the fuck it's all about.  

I also love the idea that others are so willing to help spread my cards out and assist in this long term project.

If it's stamped FREE ART CARD on the front and back and has my signature on it, it's a genuine free art card and I hope you didn't pay anything for it.

Keep your eyes open and maybe one day a free art card will fall out of a book and into your lap.