Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How I Display my Art

This week, A Cardboard Life had a post about the different ways to store and display trading cards.  He had some images of a couple of ways people were displaying cards on walls.  He ended the blog entry with a question:  Are sports cards art?

To me, sports cards are absolutely art.  Like paintings, cards are collected, appraised, critiqued, etc.  Card collectors discuss design, layout, style, photography, coloring, condition, and technique just like an art collector.

Like most art collectors, I like to show off all of my collection to anyone who cares to look.  I do this by posting pictures on my blog and I display many of them on a wall in my basement.


I didn't like any of the methods of displaying cards that I could find online, so I started brainstorming ways I could make my own display case.

I spent a couple hours wandering around the hardware store and stumbled upon some 6'-long, u-shaped pieces of plastic that I'm guessing are used for window frames or sliding door jams.  A top loader fits perfectly into these "rails" that I cut and glued to a piece of 2'x4' plywood.  I added some molding on the edges and spray-painted them black. 

The boards display my main personal collections, including all of my Hochevar, Fowler, and manupatch cards. 


As my collection has grown, I've added more displays boards to my basement wall.  My fourth display board is currently in the painting stage of production in my basement as I type this.  My goal is to turn my entire man-cave into a card gallery and use my card collection as "wallpaper".

So, what say you?  Are trading cards art?  And does anyone else have a unique way of displaying their cards? 

5 comments:

Dennis said...

Those boards look great! I've tried to do something like that but haven't ever had anything turn out nearly that nice. If that isn't art then art can kiss my ass.

Charles @ Hoopography said...

Trading card are most def art. I know you can buy displays like these, but it's def cool (and prolly more economical) that you made yours.

night owl said...

You bet they're art!

I have no handyman in me, so I can't display anything like that. The best I can do is get one of those wall things at Target that holds like 25 cards and fill them in -- I've got one so far.

the sewingmachineguy said...

Sweet! That looks cool.
I have often thought about doing something similar, but I worry about fading. Any thoughts on fading?

Offy said...

Wow, those look awesome. I got a fancy display case for Christmas, but was disappointed to find out that card won't fit into it if they're in toploaders. That kind of limits what I'm willing to put into that case. I like your method and I think that I might make some smaller ones to hang in the little nooks and crannies in my weird shaped collectibles room.