Discussing the Art

[Joan Marie]

One thing that I really hope we are able to do with this deck is to compile the "Artist's statements" about each card.

I know that when you are choosing the images for your cards, this is not random. You have something in mind as to how you are choosing to express the meaning and feeling of the card you are creating. The card you made is an expression of your personal understanding of that card.
Sometimes we don't know until afterwards why we chose the images we chose. It's a mysterious process and often filled with happy accidents.

Some of you have already provided an artist statement, most have not and that's okay.

Eventually I think it would be a beautiful thing to have a statement, even if it's only a couple of lines, from each artist for each card that could be compiled into an LWB to go along with the deck. The personal touch this would give our deck would just be magical.

I would like to take Marigold's suggestion and start a thread where we can discuss each other's work and ask questions and in the process maybe our own ideas become clearer to us.

As she put it:

Considering that this thread is now perhaps the sign that we're eager to talk about the cards already published, I'm wondering Joan Marie if we could perhaps have a space where we could already begin ? The deck is really starting to take form and some patterns are appearing within it.

She was referring to a discussion with AstralPasta about this powerful card:

You can see that discussion starting here



So let's start those conversations and help each other sort out and understand the imagery being used and choices being made.
Please use this thread to share thoughts and ask questions and help get us all thinking about what went into all this astonishing work.

Expect this thread to be going all over the place. And that's okay. Maybe subscribe to it so you don't miss anything.

You can see all the finished cards HERE so if there are any you'd like to know more about or comment on, here would be the place for that.

[AstralPasta]

I guess I'll give it a start with the Fool card I made

00 The Fool.png (200.77 KiB) Viewed 1633 times

I was going for Eve in the garden of Eden, about to eat the Fruit of Knowledge, except the snake(s) is(are) her friend, knowledge is powerful and good and sacred, and Eve is a scientist and someone who relies on both her wits and her environment. The garden is the earth, and things are harmonious. The fruit is a pomegranate, which symbolizes the mysteries of birth and death, and to me means it can bestow the knowledge (and tactics and tools and skills) of survival onto Eve as the resourceful mother of all humans.

The narcissus represents self awareness to me, even if some may see that as self involvement, it can also imply contemplation and self knowledge, and therefore self actualization. The dove and the snake on the same tree can be about the harmony of Eden before humans became aware, or can imply that this scene is taking place in the spirit world (an idea I got from Sarah Ann Lawless in her storytelling podcast - she's been a big influence on me) where the spirit of a dove and the spirit of a snake can coexist in such proximity peacefully, or can be about how purity of spirit and a connection to the divine can occupy the same space as physicality, embodiment, the natural earthly body that tends to be seen as sinful or impure or inherently wicked. Also birds and snakes are sorta cousins on the evolutionary tree thing, haha.

The snakes as two snakes makes me think of how before ideas of duality, or potentially before knowledge, there wasn't judgement. All things are one or is taken at face value. But with knowledge, and self awareness, judgement comes, and we must separate things into Good for us and Bad for us. The other thing it makes me think of is how handedness develops. For righties, the right hand becomes dominant, and our left becomes the silent helper that we're often unconscious of. But watch videos about split brain patients (and stroke patients) and the implication of us technically having two brains becomes apparent. The implication arises that we have a seemingly silent right brain, that is more accurately just simple in terms of verbal aptitude, with it's own personality and own take on reality, one that seems to be more spiritual and more connected, and possibly, more playful. It reminds me of how the conscious and unconscious are often described and contrasted against each other.

The bees have 1, 2, 3, stripes on their backs to represent the 3 septanaries but they're still stationed at the hive, here represented by the sun. Their sting hasn't been 'known' yet as the Garden of Eden is often represented as a place of innocence, which can also mean ignorance, and ignorance to pain, and work and toil. The 10 honeycomb hexes filled with honey represent the 10 sephira which the fool will soon be descending down from. The 22 pomegranates on the tree are the 22 paths or 22 majors. The 12 roses symbolize the zodiac. The butterfly symbolizes sensitivity to spirit, the willingness to allow oneself to change and be guided by this instinct towards self transformation, sacrificing an old way of life, however slowly or dramatically. The blue symbolizes peacefulness and a calm center in spirit. So with the idea that we're in the realm of the spirit, everything here is all symbols, metaphor, and simply and peacefully coexisting. It's just normal right now, but in a beautiful kind of way. We're comfortable in this otherworld, or, if you'd like this otherworld-infused earth where separation doesn't yet exist and the imaginal and the physical are One. So there's not, here in this scene, any anxiety....and we're sovereign but connected and intertwined with our environment, and everything is experiential and the feeling is one of presence.

I think major parts of this were inspired by the Spirit Keeper's tarot, so I want to give props to Benebell Wen here. As well as Sarah Ann Lawless and her podcast Hedgefolk Tales where she went through different mythological stories, starting from the creation of humans and the universe. I don't know where to find it now so I can't link to it though (luckily, I downloaded them). As well as the ideas of Lilith and Persephone, and (here) Alan Moore’s Promethea.

Alrighty, that's enough BS-ing (haha!!! just kidding).

edit: Joan Marie, how do you get rid of the image caption text thingy? with the views?

[Joan Marie]

edit: Joan Marie, how do you get rid of the image caption text thingy? with the views?

Thank you for this!

That caption appears because the image is smaller than the thumbnail size.

Resize the image to 500px wide and that text will disappear.