Ghost City

Day 27 of the 30-in-30 challenge

I have quite a few sets of old playing cards because I like them and because they appear to be so versatile. Yet I haven't used any - until today.

My concept for this piece was to create the unearthly atmosphere of an abandoned city. The buildings are represented by playing cards, in this case old NFL merchandising cards with a simple back design. I chose yellow for the sky to suggest pollution or even a nuclear fallout that made this town uninhabitable.

I used a portion of the gray backside of an old album cover to make a street, and added gum - the Wrigley's - as relics of the people who used to live and work there and who had spit out the gum on the sidewalks.

The arrow on the gum package underlines the exodus.
 

Mixed media: acrylics, old playing cards, album cover, clipping from an antique collector's guide, on cradled wood panel, 12" x 12"