MY TAROT DECK

I’d like to share my latest art project with you. It’s a tarot deck in-progress, and I’ve called it the Creating is Breathing Tarot.

What is the Creating is Breathing Tarot?

Creating is Breathing Tarot uses pop-culture imagery from any and all sources regardless of origin or copyright. I have no plans to sell this deck, and will probably end up giving the original individual cards away. Each completed card has been copy written under an Attribution Creative Commons license on Flickr, however, which I hope is the right thing to do (I’m open to input).

When all is said and done, I’ll have three separate tarot galleries on my art site donnalouisefaber.com. One will be exclusively for Major Arcana cards, one for Minor Arcana Royalty, and the last will be for Minor Arcana Suit cards. As I do with the rest of my art, I will blog significant meanings and symbolism for each tarot card and link everything together so it’s relatively easy to find.

This began as an art journal that I posted on Flickr and Facebook. I started journaling in response to a period of artistic attention deficit that I’m probably still going through, and a bunch of inspiration I got from bloggers I know who art journal regularly. It seemed like a good way to relieve my need to create without entering into too much of a commitment, so I began making little collages. Those pieces gradually transformed into tarot cards, although I’m not sure why or how. They just … well, they just sort of happened.

Sharing the Process

Each card is a 3”x5” collage. The small size is a challenge I enjoy working with. To satisfy my creative urge and bring each small vision into reality, I need the freedom to pull whatever images I desire, without any restriction.

First, I get closer to the symbolism and meaning of the card using a number of my favorite book and internet resources. Then, I focus on graphics, look for images, and loosely plan composition. I think the longest and toughest part is actually cutting all the little bits and pieces out using scissors and without mangling them. But that’s also part of the meditation or spiritual infusion of each card. It’s important I let spirit move through me (something an artist friend of mine in NYC would say) to allow the card to be whatever it needs to be. If I interfere intellectually with that process for some silly reason, it stalls or gets frustrating. When I assemble the collage, at last it transforms based on the needs of that assembly. I do highlights with a metallic pen, if it needs it. Not all cards do.

At the time of this writing, I’ve got a large, unfinished and beautiful piece on Francine sitting in my dining room. She stares out at me with lovely green eyes and enticingly red lips. This poor incomplete muse is a reluctant refugee of my artistic attention deficit syndrome. I hope she returns soon, demanding attention, making a ruckus and breaking rules in love.

Until then, I hope these tiny morsels of intuited tarot wisdom satisfy your artistic cravings as they do mine.

D♥

Visit donnalouisefaber.com to read more.