Ars Longa Art Cards take collectors back in time

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Jesse Loving is a card collector with a passion for the history of what the cards represent. His appreciation of the artwork that comes

with it was a key factor in creating his own line of trading cards named, Ars Longa Art Cards.

The translation for Ars Longa is, “Art is long, Life is short”, and according to the website; “The phrase was chosen because it captures the unique role that trading cards play in the history of baseball as an organized sport”.

For Jesse and his wife, the inspiration he received growing up collecting is what drives his desire to give back to the hobby community. Loving says, ” I’ve collected baseball cards on and off for 30-plus years. Like many collectors, I’ve dreamed over the decades of collecting the more historically significant card issues and players, but such cards tend to exceed my budget. After years of thinking- some day i’ll be able to collect ‘that’ card issue or ‘that’ player- I realized that day might never come.” Loving continues, ” Then it occurred to me that if I can’t afford them, maybe I can make my own.”

After six months of learning about the process and designing his own cards, Loving had made about 100 cards that he was pleased with; and with that- Ars Longa was born. The early challenges that arose while creating this vintage-type feel were mostly aesthetic situations. ” Finding the right ink, images, card-stock, technology and equipment”, Loving says also, ‘ Learning how to distress the cards to achieve an authentic feel, all of these elements required an enormous amount of research.”

With each card the collector can feel like they are holding something that has made it through time, but with modern touches and creative additions to each piece of art.

And that’s the most important thing to realize: These are not just trading cards, but ‘art’ cards as well. At this point, no mass production has occurred, so each card should intrigue the person holding it knowing it has had a lot of time put into it.

Cards tell stories of their subjects and eras, but have their own stories too. I wanted to capture that quality of cardboard that both tells a story and is itself storied. Once I felt confident that I had achieved these goals, I felt comfortable sharing my work.

The card market today has been whittled down to only a few major card companies producing the top products, but a resurgence of creative-minded people have started taking more of an artistic approach. And we’re all lucky to be a part of it.

For now, all of the Ars Longa art cards can be found on their eBay site, and Loving says they have plans to release other card designs from the 1870’s to the 1920’s. You can see both the Spearheads & Beginnings sets card-by-card in the Portfolio section at www.arslongaartcards.com.

Additionally, Loving plans to produce larger-sized items lie the Spearheads advertising poster. They will be 8X10 and have that Tobacciana feel of the 19th century.

Follow Ars Longa Art Cards on Twitter: @arslongaartcrds