They’re like sports trading cards, except they don’t have a picture of a baseball player on the front or any stats on the back. When dealing with these cards, the message is a little less obvious.

They’re artist trading cards, miniature works of art that are traded or given away. The movement, which started in 1996 in Switzerland, has recently exploded thanks to the Internet where clubs and forums spread the word about spreading cards.

The tiny canvases allow artists and teachers to experiment with media and techniques, and the finished product can be used as art therapy or be given as thoughtful gifts to people near and far.

Art therapist Lisa Kay gives out the cards to patients at a cancer care center in DeKalb, Illinois.

“For the patients in the center, it really gives them a sense of hope that people who don’t even know them care enough about them to do this. It’s a gesture of love from humankind,” she said. “That’s what makes it so powerful. It’s the greatest expression of giving.”

To read more about the artist trading card movement, including how members of the military have benefited from it, please click on the link to the original story posted below written by Dana Herra for the Daily Chronicle.

Card collections are works of art