Not so long ago, Portland, Oregon artist Liz Cohn inherited 125 decks of playing cards from her father-in-law’s private collection. She decided to use the large amount of cards as materials for a mail art collaboration project. When she first talked about her project on social media, she was seeking a way to connect to other collage artists.
But $1200 in stamps and almost two years later, “Playing with a Full Deck” has grown to possibly be the largest artists’ playing card collection ever assembled, with 1592 cards on which over 205 artists from 24 countries collaborated.
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images (from left to right): The Mermaid and the Pirate by Stefanie LePape and Liz Cohn, Forest Queen by Pascale Hulin and Liz Cohn, Jack and Jill by Robert Hugh Hunt and Liz Cohn. All works approximately 3.5″ x 2.5″, collage on playing cards, 2010-2012