library card art set empire

Five ink and wash paintings on vintage library cards.

Each card is 3 x 5 inches and attractively packaged for gift giving, in a clear sleeve with a decorative card top.

Library sign-out cards only remain as curiosity items — relics still occasionally found in the back pocket of library books. I take these vintage, obsolete cards and repurpose them as art, making ink paintings that work in concert with the signatures, stamps and marks the cards have acquired over their history and service.

The titles of these five cards are …

The Empire and the Future, a series of Imperial Studies Lectures delivered in the University of London, King's College (1916)
Techniques of International Trade by Morris S. Rosenthal (1950)
Glass by G.O. Jones (1971)
Polystyrene by William C. Teach (1960)
Runnerless Molding by Ernest P. Moslo (1960)

Library card artworks are fantastic bookmarks (they have an incredible durability), and absolutely shine when framed. They also make great gifts — just tuck one into a birthday or other greeting card and suddenly you’re sending your friend or relative some original artwork for the cost of a stamp.

The artwork is wholly original, done freehand, directly onto the cards, in ink and wash.

Every order comes with an extra art surprise.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
— Winston Churchill

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
— Jean Cocteau

Buy from people, not from corporations. And buy things that are made by human hands, not computers.

Escape the dreaming planet ... give the gift of original art.

SAVE OUR LIBRARIES

You can find more work at www.etsy.com/ca/shop/cigartinstories.