Submitted Photo — Atascadero artist Yvonne Helms creates and collects artist trading cards, or ATCs. Helms said she enjoys using paints and fabrics to create her miniature works of art, such as this ATC of butterflies.

Atascadero artist Yvonne Helms and nearly a dozen North County artisans will take part in an workshop and meeting at 8 p.m. today at It’s A Grind Coffee House, located in the Costco Shopping Center off Los Osos Valley Road in San Luis Obispo.

The gathering is free and open to the public of all ages. The meeting will focus on artist trading cards, or ATCs, miniature works of art that are traded, bartered and swapped between amateur and professional artists of all ages in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

Helms, a member of the Atascadero Art Association and the SLO ARTS Council’s Arts Obispo, said she has never experienced more joy from her art than when she has traded her miniatures with other artists.

“This is a very cool and incredible fun art movement that is becoming increasingly more and more popular and I want to inform those throughout San Luis Obispo County who may not have heard of them before about them,” she said. “ATCs are trading cards, whose standard size measures 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, that are made by artists of all levels, from all around the world and traded with other artists. No money ever changes hands. It’s truly a barter system, meant to bring those in the artist community together. They are miniature works of art.”

Helms, who has owned Atascadero Rubber Stamp Company for the past five years, is organizing the workshop along with SLO artist and interior designer Diana Hathaway Timmons, owner of SLO-based Tangerine Appeal furniture store.

Helms said trading cards is rewarding and provides the artist the motivation to be more creative and create more artwork. She said her first trade was with a San Jose woman hosting a group on the Yahoo Web site, www.yahoo.com, called the ATC Connection that traded three cards for four cards that used the colors black, gold and red. Helms traded her own goddess ATCs for the woman’s miniature artwork and the woman received one card from each participate as a reward for hosting the group. She said most artwork is traded one-on-one between artists, rather than in groups.

“It’s instant gratification because your artwork is out there and it’s being seen,” she said. “You are literally sharing it with the world. It’s more challenging to create in miniature than people realize and it’s more inexpensive to create than large-format art. The cards are quite amazing, the level of detail. They even have juried Web sites for incredibly advanced artists. I’m not there yet. There are also magazines that can teach artists new techniques and ways of making art that they’ve never done before. Some of it is very creative.”

Any medium can be used, including paper, fabric, plastic, glass, metal and wood, and are limited only by the imagination and creativity of the artist, Helms said. Most local traders use a stiff stock board to create their paintings and other artwork using mixed media or for a finely crafted collage.

“The options are unlimited for the artist because they can really use anything to express their creativity in this smaller format,” she said. “I love to work with fabrics, but some of the ATCs have been made on a sewing machine and are adorned with very detailed embroidery. Just about everything you can imagine, you can create on an artist trading card. Each one of them is so interesting.”

Helms traded her ATCs with artists overseas in Oslo, Norway and Sydney, Australia. A professional photographer from Oslo was a fan of punk-style clothing designer Zandra Rhodes and wanted to trade two of her own photographic creations for two of Helms’ ATCs, one of which was a Rhodes-themed collage.

Helms said many ATC collectors are women who are homemakers or work at home and pursue art as a hobby. They often show an interest in other creative pursuit such as scrapbooking and quilting. She said anything from interior design and photography to drawing and painting can be adapted and expressed on the smaller-format ATCs.

“Most of the time, trades are made online at various Web sites, but the ultimate in trading experience comes from doing a live swap and actually getting to meet the artist that made the card,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to do — get together a live swap for those who are already making the cards and also getting information, such as hand-outs, references and Web links, to newbies so they can get started. I hope that my efforts help to educate those who may not know what they’re missing out on. I think this will be the first live swap in the county.”

Helms said as part of each trade, which costs about the equivalent of two postage stamps, artists and collectors often include in their packages miniature art supplies for their next ATC as free goodies with each trade.

ATCs were started by Swiss artist M. Vanci Stirnemann, who began the trading of art miniatures at a gallery in Zurich, Switzerland in May 1997 in protest of the art world’s growing emphasis on profits instead of the joy of art for art’s sake. It also marked the revival of the miniatures movement among collectors and the drive to meet fellow collectors locally as well as the artists themselves.

“The artist had 1,000 of his own artist trading cards and told all the people who were in the gallery that, if they brought their own ATCs, he would trade them for whichever ones they like among those he had created,” she said. “He was absolutely giving his work away. It wasn’t exactly giving something away and getting nothing in return. I know that I have hundreds of them and collecting artist trading cards brings me a lot of joy. I get quite a bit of joy collecting them. It’s almost an addiction.”

When trading online, ATC enthusiasts must be 18 years old, but parents of minor children often trade the cards on their child’s behalf.

“All mediums are welcome-painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, fabric, clay. You name it, we do it,” the Web site, www.atcsforall.com, said. “And we don’t just trade ATCs. There is a lot going on here. This includes art journals, altered art, rolodexes and rolo trading and much more. We have a gallery and trader rating system to facilitate trading between members and keep our community growing. We hope that you will join our family of art lovers and join us in trading art.”

ArtTrader Magazine is an online publication that focuses on the mail art world. Its features include interviews and articles about ATCs, art journals and other items. The magazine also provides step-by-step walk-through articles for the novice to the beginner.

Helm’s gallery of artwork can be visited at the Web site, www. atcsforall.com/forum/

gallery/index.php?u=2029.

For more information about ATCs, visit the original ATC site at www.artist-trading-cards.com, the quarterly magazine site at www.atcquarterly.com or for general information visit www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html.