Category Archives: Card Art

by

Strength Comes In On Little Cat Feet

strength1

strength2

The lion would seem like an obvious choice for Strength, given it’s almost the only animal anyone ever associates with this card thanks to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. However, I chose another feline to embody this member of the Major Arcana–a domestic cat. Despite the cracks in her skull and breaks in her teeth, this cat skull is still here to tell her tales to whomever will listen. she embodies not the brute force of Strength, but resilience and cleverness. A brass chain shows the ability to withstand great forces, while grass reminds us that there is strength in being able to bend with the wind and thereby survive the storm.

Strength is the 66th assemblage, which means including the Happy Squirrel I have a baker’s dozen left. On to the next!

by

I’m BACK–With the Queen of Pentacles!

queen1

Hoo boy–the last few weeks have been seriously challenging! I knew festival season would be busy, but I have had a LOT of work to do outside of the Tarot of Bones even beyond that, and I’ve spent entirely too much time away from my studio space. However, I’m back to work on the Tarot of Bones, and would like to present the Queen of Pentacles, the 65th assemblage for this deck. The opossum may seem like a surprising choice for this card; however, this animal is a wonderful mother, keeping her babies safe in a belly pouch until they’re too big, and caring for them after as well.

I still fully intend to complete the rest of the assemblages by the end of the year; including the Happy Squirrel there are fourteen left, and ten weeks left in the year. That means completing one a week, plus work on another. I think I’ll be fine, and I’ll keep you all posted on my progress.

by

Card Back Art for the Tarot of Bones Deck!

NuW7vtbgxiiYMpXT0MompXUfJu3KThzp3tuM--xZoN0

So I am absolutely psyched to reveal the card back design for the Tarot of Bones deck! Narumi, of LotusLion.com, is also the artist who created the logo for the Green Wolf website, among other graphics she’s created for me, and I highly recommend her work. (The watermarks will be removed for the final card printing. Please do not steal this image; Narumi is available for custom work and has quite reasonable rates!)

by

Page of Wands

pagewands

I’m definitely getting a better photo of this piece for the Tarot of Bones deck, because this one definitely doesn’t do its colors justice! I loved the idea of the Page of Wands as a statement of intent, so I turned the rabbit foot bone into the wand itself, conveying the rabbit’s quiet voice further over the land. This is the 64th assemblage piece completed–I have only 15 left including the Happy Squirrel! I’m still waiting for the last couple of bits and pieces from suppliers, but other than that I’m going to keep making progress as quickly as I can. I’m still going to be incredibly busy for the next few weeks, but my intent is to meet my goal of having all the pieces done by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

by

And Now–The World!

theworld

The World is one of those cards that surprised me at how well it came together. It sat as a painted backboard for the better part of a week since I was entangled in preparation for one last vending event this month (the fourth of four!) It wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to put together the rest of the piece. Once the four corner stones were laid in place, they drew it together perfectly!

This is one of the few cards that uses a resin replica skull rather than a real one; it’s not legal to trade in hawksbill sea turtle skulls, so I was happy to pick up a Bone Clones replica. I chose the sea turtle for this card because of the common association of turtles with the planet itself–a large green expanse of land surrounded by vast oceans. Additionally, sea turtles have access to areas of the planet we can only traverse with specialized equipment, and they’re able to move easily through more dimensions of space than we are on dry land. This reflected the open horizons and higher awareness symbolism of this card. And, of course, there’s the eye-opening experience of travel–a sea turtle may go many thousands of miles in a given year. Finally, the ocean is the birthplace of life on this planet, and this sea turtle skull is wrapped in a cradle of “seaweed”. (Here’s the tutorial I used to make the faux seaweed out of an old plastic bag.)

This is the 63rd assemblage completed; my pace has slowed down some due to being busy in other areas of work and life, but I still am well on track for completing all the assemblages by the end of the year, keeping me on my production schedule.

 

Seaweed

by

Returning Home–With Death!

death

Death is quite possibly one of the most infamous cards in the tarot. While it certainly can mean the impending (or past) death of a person or other beloved being, it also frequently refers to any other sort of major, often sudden, change. I chose a rattlesnake skull for the center of this piece as people often fear serpents more than they really need to, focusing on the venomous fangs rather than all the environmental benefits snakes bring, and the fact that the snake is often more afraid of them than vice versa. The shed snakeskin on the background signifies the positive elements of this card: through change you’re able to leave behind old things you’ve outgrown and can move on to a better phase in your life. Reversed, this card may be telling you that you’re unnecessarily digging your heels in when it comes to accepting change. Let things go as they will; you’ll be better for it in the end.

This is the longest I’ve gone without completing a Tarot of Bones assemblage piece since I began back in January, and it feels nice to be back. Part of why I pushed myself earlier in the year to get ahead of schedule was because I knew Labor Day weekend, and the weeks leading up to it, would be entirely dedicated to splitting my art vending booth between two of my bigger events of the year, and I didn’t want to fall too far behind. We’re just about halfway through September, and this is the 62nd assemblage completed out of 79 (including the Happy Squirrel). That gives me 16 weeks to complete 17 assemblages, so I’m actually still pretty well on target.

by

Returning Home With the Empress

empress

empress2

empress3

I returned home Saturday evening after a week away visiting family. I wasted no time in getting back to work Sunday morning, and today I completed the 61st assemblage of the Tarot of Bones, the Empress. She’s one of my favorite cards, a woman who has fully come into her power, and this card often represents such a high, grounded point in one’s life. I chose the whitetail doe to represent the Empress, due to her strength, agility, and how she beckons us into the wilderness from the forest’s edge. Reversed, the Empress may presage a loss of power, and a time of confusion and vulnerability–the deer in the headlights.

I really love how the colors came together on this card, with the fiery reds and yellows contrasting with the black background. They’re a fitting throne for a doe in the prime of her life; she may not get as much attention as her antlered mate, but she is no weakling. Remember her next time you see a lady deer step forth from the woods, with strong, lean muscles and her head held high.

by

A Tiny Wheel Rolls Across the Land

wheel

I am getting ready to leave town to visit family, but I wanted to get one more assemblage done before I headed out. And so I came up with an assemblage using the TEENIEST little skull in the set, a resin replica ruby-throated hummingbird measuring just over 1″ long. I didn’t have a backboard small enough for it, so I ended up using a sand dollar I got at a thrift shop. I painted the five-pointed star on the shell with the colors of a hummingbird’s feathers, symbolizing the swiftly beating wings and the Wheel’s changeable nature. Silver and gold decorations mark designated points around the circle of the year, reminding us that this card is all about cycles. This also ties in with the hummingbird’s yearly migrations, sometimes lasting thousands of miles before the little creature reaches its destination. These cycles are crucial to the species’ survival, and even though they may bring hardship eventually the wintering site or the nesting site will be reached, and rest can happen.

(Did I mention the skull replica is TINY?)

by

The Last of the Pips is Complete!

tenswords

I’ve reached another milestone in the creation of the Tarot of Bones–all of the Pips (the ace through ten cards) are complete! I admit I put off this particular card for so long because it’s a really unpleasant energy in a lot of ways. You’re hitting rock bottom when this one comes up, and even though the sunrise promises a new beginning, you still have to deal with all these raccoon teeth stuck in your back. Well, okay, maybe not actual raccoon teeth, but that’s what I put in the card assemblage. Reversed, you could be ignoring the silver lining even this distressing card offers, letting a bad situation get to you so badly that even when it’s past you’re still hanging on to it.

I now have only twenty assemblages left, to include the extra Happy Squirrel card! I’m still waiting for just a couple of harder to find skulls to arrive from my suppliers, but I shouldn’t have any trouble sticking to the production schedule. If you haven’t taken a look at the assemblages I’ve completed since the beginning of 2015, here’s my online gallery. (Please note I’ll be taking better photos for the cards themselves.)

by

The Hierophant Calls Out to the Herd

hierophant1

Just finished up my first assemblage for August, the Hierophant. This one took more time due to multiple layers of materials and adhesives, but I’m really, really happy with the outcome. The javelina skull may seem like an unusual choice. However, these little peccaries live in tightly-knit communities that the Hierophant would appreciate; they even frequently anoint each other with their scent glands. But they’re not mindless followers. Each javelina must sharpen its own tusks, after all!

This time of year is exactly why I worked so hard to get myself ahead of schedule on these assemblages. I only have twenty left, plus the Happy Squirrel, but there are also only twenty weeks left in the year, and I’m thick in the middle of festival season. So I don’t have as much time for the assemblages as I’d like, but I am able to still keep up on them. With luck and persistence I’ll be able to stick to the production schedule and have all the assemblages completed by the end of the year.