4 October, 2013 12:56PM AEST

Micro art a big idea

It is art on a small scale, with over 1000 pieces of artwork the size of a trading card taking shape in a new Bundaberg exhibition.

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Whilst the artworks are tiny, the scale is huge, as the works fill every corner of the gallery space at the Bundaberg School of Arts.

The work is a collaboration between four artists, Marlies Oakley, Sonya Holt, Alice Graham and Lynda Vertigan.

"The sort-of movement started in Switzerland in 1996 where a Swiss guy put 1200 of these cards into a bookstore, and instead of selling them he actually traded them," Marlies said.

"Whoever wanted one of his cards had to make one in order to get one.

"We want to loosely base it on the artist trading card concept, because we've framed them, we've made series; we've just taken it that step further."

The hope is to have at least 1001 pieces in the exhibition, and Marlies says she has been working since mid-2012 to have them ready.

"I've made 750 and I still keep going. The other three they think I'm mad," Marlies said.

"I have to do them, I'm obsessed with them because they're so much fun you can't stop.

"It's a great way if you're having a creative lull and you don't know where you're going with your next project, these are just little cards to keep your brain going and keep your creativity going.

"You just play, out of a little artwork can come a big artwork. It's limitless, the only thing that stops you is your own imagination."

The idea for a new card can strike Marlies anywhere and at anytime. Earlier in the year when she travelled home to Germany, she found herself cutting up cereal boxes to put down her ideas.

"Basically you can use anything, postcards, an old painting which didn't work I cut up to size, and all of a sudden they worked," she said.

"You can do it while you're watching telly, and some cards are done within minutes or half an hour, or others you come back to days and days later because you put them back in the box.

"Then one day you pick them back up, put something else on and you're done. So you can spend as little or as much time as you want on one card."

The exhibition will also feature a place where the public can come and create their own artist trading cards to add to the exhibition, so that over time it changes and evolves.

"We will have an area where they have materials there, and if visitors want we can make trading card with them," Marlies said.

"The fun bit is, because in a normal exhibition you have to step back and get the whole picture by looking from a distance at a painting.

"These ones you actually have to put your nose on it to see what is happening with one card. There are so many layers and so much happening even in just one card.

"I don't actually know how long it will take people top see the whole exhibition."

The exhibition runs from October 5-12 at the Bundaberg School of Arts, then will travel to Mount Perry for a three week exhibition.