If you’re anything like us, your credit card is worth less and less these days. It’s that pesky economy, you know. So if you’re banned from shopping sprees and your plastic is burning a hole in your pocket, what’s a conscientious spender to do? Well, make art, for one. Many artists turn their useless bank cards into collages and canvasses, or rely on the concept of credit in their work, and this comforts us in these trying times. Also, fun fact: according to Lapham’s Quarterly, the term ‘credit card’ was first used in Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000-1887, a novel about a socialist utopia! Irony! Click through to see some of the weird, wacky, and surprisingly lovely examples of credit card art that we’ve found, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Art by Gerard DuBois
Painted credit cards by James Helms [via]
From the Credit on Color exhibition at the Netherlands’ Graphic Design Museum [via Alive Not Dead]
Collage by Barbara Schulman [via Crooked Brains]
As if guitars weren’t expensive enough already. [via Rock ‘n Roll Weekend]
Collage by Michelle Hedgecock [via Flickr]
Frozen funds. By Ólöf Jóhannsdóttir [via Flickr]
“Your Name Here” by Peggy Dembicer [via Flickr]
[via Crooked Brains via Flickr]
San Francisco mural. [via Flickr]