Friday, April 09, 2010

Cutting Up Cards

A great American hobby transformed into great American art- through a little bit of cutting and pasting.

For the past 10 years, LaVern Brock has been doing the unthinkable. He has been taking perfectly good Baseball cards and cutting them to shreds. You should see the photos on his website- he does it with a smile. On top of that, he spares no expense. He is happy to cut up overproduced cards from the 80's to expensive Hall of Famers like Sandy Koufax. Call him a Baseball card guerrilla.

Now, this isn't some wanton desire to heap destruction and fright to the collector in us. He does all of this to create works of art worthy of display in anyone's living room. Check out some of his pieces below.
The above collage was commissioned as a 40th birthday present to a lucky Dodger fan. The greatest thing about it is that the piece consist of only Dodger cards. Not only that, the artist uses no duplicate cards. Below is a Jackie Robinson piece that reproduces the cover of a vintage comic book from 1948.
A great report found on AOL tells a story about a commissioned work featuring the Mets.
Of course, since all his works are commissioned, Brock has to cater to customer whims, like the New York Mets fan who wanted a collage version of a Mets jersey that featured all of the team's players, save one.

"For some reason, he insisted Tom Seaver not be featured," Brock said. "He's a Hall of Famer, but the guy hated him. I ended up using a Seaver card, but cut his face out of it. The guy loved that!"
Brock's Website:
Hat Tip: Sports Card Report: