Category Archives: Card Art

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A Simple Matter: The Four of Cups

fourcups

I think that after the elaborate piece that was the Magician, I needed to go in the complete opposite direction and do something super-simple. And so I present the Four of Cups. Nothing especially complicated, just an old wooden cutting board colored with secondhand chestnut wood stain, and a quartet of deer rib bones that I found in the woods years ago. Most of my time was spent waiting for the stain to dry; since it was a bit older and thicker it took longer to stop being tacky and leave stains all over my fingertips.

But I still love it. I absolutely adore old wood cutting boards for this project. All the cuts and slices and gouges in the wood are more pronounced when I add stain, as though much of my work has been done for my by an anonymous cook years before. And with this piece I wanted that wear and tear to show through. The white bones accentuate it even more, though they have their own wear marks and stains.

I really love the symbolism of this card. I’m an introvert, and I consider it my “hey, I need some ME time, dammit!” card. Sure, in the original RWS deck the guy sitting and contemplating things might look like he’s missing out on getting a fourth cup. But I figure he’s thinking to himself “For the love of God would you stop thrusting chalices at me, you damned disembodied mitt? Go wave a sword at the next guy who’s about to get a great real estate deal and let me get some peace and quiet already!” So I tend to see this card, upright, as a positive thing, and only when it’s reversed do I start worrying that maybe I need to get outside a bit more.

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You’re Invited to My Tarot of Bones Party!

Come join Portland me on Friday, April 10 from 6pm – 8pm to celebrate the launch of my IndieGoGo Campaign for The Tarot of Bones!

Paxton Gate PDX (4204 N. Mississippii Ave, portland, OR) has kindly offered their natural history shop as the setting for the celebration. The event is free to the public, and attendees will have the opportunity to hear me talk about this ambitious art and writing project, ask me questions about my work, and view some of the original assemblage pieces for the Tarot of Bones. Those wishing to back the IndieGoGo campaign can sign up on the laptop provided at the party. Music will be provided by DJ Numinosis of A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast.

The official Facebook event page can be found here!

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Home Again, Home Again–With the Magician in Tow

magician

There are few things more frustrating than being an artist separated from her art for a week. Granted, I was gone for very good reasons–visiting family, and being a guest of honor at Paganicon. Still, there were many moments where my hands itched to be able to pull together wood and paint and bones and other materials into a cohesive arrangement–and where I got to set the pace of my day rather than being on a very busy schedule of travel and engagement.

So when I got back to my studio on Monday, I decided to treat myself to one of the Major Arcana. It’s not that I don’t like the Minor Arcana; quite the contrary, it’s been a fun challenge to make each one have its own personality. But the Majors have extra oomph, and the Magician has been calling out to me ever since I brought home a particularly lovely snake skeleton prepared by Custom Cranium.

This was one of the most intimidating cards for me to create, not because the Magician is inherently scary, but because it has such a deep well of meaning collectively and personally. I have been pagan since 1996, and the image of the magic-worker is deeply woven through pagan and other esoteric communities. So I didn’t want to screw it up. I gotta say, though, this card is giving Justice a run for its money as my favorite card to date.

Also, it’s my sixteenth assemblage piece completed so far. I only need to do another three and a half pieces to be on schedule for completing all the assemblages by the end of the year. The next few months don’t have a lot of out of town time, so I should be able to make pretty good headway on this project–especially important as summer is going to be VERY busy with festivals and whatnot.

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One More Before I Go…

tenpentacles

So you know how I was just saying that I was probably done with making assemblage pieces until after I got back from my next round of travels? Well, I wasn’t quite finished. Yesterday I managed to complete the Ten of Pentacles, one of my favorite assemblages to date. (I also can’t complain about the upright symbolism–abundance and contentment? I’m okay with that!)

I do have a lot on my plate for today, though, so I’m going to keep this brief. As always, if you have any questions about the Tarot of Bones, you can comment here or email me at lupa.greenwolf(at)gmail(dot)com.

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Marching Forth With the Five of Wands

fiveofwands

I keep telling myself I need to stop making assemblage pieces because I have a busy weekend coming up, and I keep not listening. Perhaps I’m at war with myself, something that the Five of Wands could certainly portend!

Like the Seven of Wands, I had to figure out how to make long bones have some personality in a small space. I admit that the Rider-Waite-Smith version of this card was a strong influence, and I hope the sense of striving without serious malice came through in my version. The conflict of the Five is not the serious business of the Seven; the Five can be playful in nature, or denote friendly competition; the Seven, on the other hand, says that someone is under attack. A reversed Five of Wands may suggest that what was once a friendly competition has turned into a bitter rivalry that no one really wants to be in any more; or it could signal the end of the conflict and a time to lick one’s wounds.

I’ve already started the next assemblage piece, but it’s doubtful I’ll finish it before I leave town. If nothing else, I’ll pick it up again upon my return later this month. I do know I’ll miss this project while I’m gone, but when I get back I’ll have a few unbroken weeks of home time–hurray!

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I Am Officially 1/6 of the Way Done!

sevenwands

Well, with the assemblage pieces, anyway. I just completed the Seven of Wands this morning, the thirteenth card in my set so far. That means I’ve finished 1/6 of the assemblages! I’m still keeping up on writing each card’s section in the book manuscript as I finish the art, so I’m not behind there, either. This is especially impressive considering I spent the better part of two weeks out of town in February, and the time when I was home trying to play catch-up. The first half of March will be similarly busy, so expect my pace on the Tarot of Bones to flag a bit until the latter half of the month. I should still be able to keep up the pace of 6 1/2 assemblages per month.

So–the Seven of Wands (which I keep mis-typing as the Sven of Wands, a very different card!). This card made me have to figure out how to make ungulate leg bones look like they were fighting. For a moment I was tempted to put them in little jackets with spears and knives and such, but decided on a more minimalist rendition. Needless to say, the card’s energy is very much about defending your turf (for better or worse), and I hope I managed to convey that well with this piece.

I also got to play with a new-but-old medium–crayons! Of course I’ve been coloring with crayons since I was wee little, and I still have the crayons I had when I was young; some of them are older than I am! But I haven’t done much with them in my artwork today. This was my opportunity to experiment, since I wanted a pleasant but not too distracting background for the bones, and acrylics weren’t going to give me the texture I wanted on this old piece of wood paneling I got from the Goodwill Outlet.

I put a couple of layers of acrylic paint on the board just for some uniformity and a better canvas than the flat black it had been before. I tried out some combinations of crayon colors in my sketchbook before coming up with the ideal layers. While the texture ended up a little less solid than I expected due to the faux woodgrain on the board, I really like the effect at the end here. Methinks I’ll have to play with this again.

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I’m Back–With Two New Cards!

aceofswords

knightswords

The past couple of weeks have been a crazed whirlwind of activity, travel, and face to face time with a lot of good people. I spent a long weekend in San Jose for PantheaCon, and then turned right back around and headed to Seattle so I could vend at MythicWorlds, this past weekend. I’ve been missing my art space pretty badly, though, so as soon as I woke up yesterday I did some de-cluttering of supplies and got back to work on the Tarot of Bones.

I came out of my artwork frenzy today with two new assemblage pieces in the Swords suit–the Ace and the Knight. The tooth for the Ace is a domestic horse incisor; these teeth start the process of eating much-needed food for many mammals, and I felt they matched the Ace of Sword’s notes of decision-making and taking opportunities as they arise. The frame was an unfinished Ikea piece that I got at the Goodwill outlet; I stained the wood with acrylic paint, and prettied up the background with some secondhand decorative paper. The incisor is poised over a pile of hay, ready to nip into the food to keep the horse alive.

I chose a common snapping turtle skull for the Knight of Swords because of its swift and merciless bite. As with other Court cards in the Swords suit, the jaw is detached to show this card has comparatively less power than the Major Arcana skulls, which all have their jaws detached. Still, it serves to show off the snapper’s fearsome beak. The mossy background and trim of this card’s backboard are deceptively placid; this is a card of much energy and movement when the right opportunity–or prey–presents itself.

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Just In Time For Valentine’s Day: The Three of Swords!

I swear the timing wasn’t intentional! I just wanted to get one of the Swords cards going, since it’s the only suit I haven’t worked with yet, and I had all the materials I needed for the Three of Swords, so here you go. I tend to look for silver linings, so despite this card’s portents of betrayal and woe, I also see it as a strong call to do something about the circumstances at hand. It might mean a messy breakup, a complete change in social circle, or the need for a less toxic work environment. It may even be telling you that you’re the problematic one and it’s time to stop wreaking destruction on others. Any way you cut it (ha!), the Three of Swords says that things are untenable as they are now and will just keep getting bloodier if they don’t change.

I’m going to be out of town a fair bit for events over the month of February. I still want to keep to my schedule; this is the tenth piece I’ve completed, and I’ll need to get three more done by the end of the month to stay on track. To be fair, it’s the shortest month of the year, so if I go into March with only, say, eleven done I won’t be too worried. And my schedule will ease up as I get into spring, so I’ll have more time for creating these assemblage pieces.

In the meantime, if you’d like to make sure I can still pay for a roof over my head and food to fuel my artistic endeavors, feel free to take a look at my books and my artwork, or have me do a totem reading for you! You can also become my Patron at Patreon and get exclusive work in progress shots of the card art. I won’t be able to make any money to pay for the time and materials I’ve put into this deck so far until after April’s crowdfunding campaign, so in the meantime these are just some of the ways you can help me make sure the Tarot of Bones becomes a reality. And thank you for your support, financial and otherwise!

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I Think This is My Favorite Card Yet

justice1

justice2

So, Justice is complete! I admit I’ve been dancing around this card for a little bit; its centerpiece is a genuine Nile crocodile skull, carefully sourced from a highly regarded taxidermy supplier. It’s not the absolute most expensive skull out there, but it’s also not the easiest to get, and I really didn’t want to screw this one up. Not that I couldn’t have repurposed it for another art project if I had; nothing goes to waste here. Still, I really like the spirit of this one, and it’s like it was made for this piece.

Now, anyone familiar with Egyptian mythology will immediately get the symbolism of the piece: the crocodile-headed goddess, Ammit, waits patiently to be fed the hearts of those deemed too impure to pass into the afterlife. The lone feather on the chain represents the feather that the hearts are weighed against. Ammit isn’t good or evil, nor does she do the judging herself–she’s just here for the food. In the same way, crocodiles don’t deliberately pick out prey based on any moral qualities; they just go for whatever wildebeest or zebra gets too close to the water and isn’t paying attention. Justice is (ideally) impartial, though for those embroiled in legal or other re-balancing situations it can be a harrowing, even traumatic experience.

Why Justice and not Judgement? Judgement has an overlay of forgiveness and moving on; the penance has been done, and though there may be a few more amends to make, the person has accepted their mistakes and the consequences and is ready to grow from them. Justice is earlier in the process, the rude awakening, the initial “Hey, you screwed up, you know that?” I have a different critter in mind for Justice, though you’ll have to wait to see what it is.

I do have to admit this is my favorite piece that I’ve completed so far. I have 69 left to go, so surely there’ll be others I like at least as much, but this one’s going to be a standout for me.

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Woohoo! The Ace of Pentacles is Complete!

Just finished up the Ace of Pentacles, my first card of February! It’s one of my favorite cards–shiny new beginnings, some of which may be lucrative, and many of which may be creative to boot. I also got to play with moss for this piece–I really, really like dried moss as a medium, primarily for its texture and depth. Plus I can embed things in it, making it a good assemblage matrix.

February is going to be a super-busy month for me, so there’s a good chance I might not make it to my goal of completing the fifteenth piece in the series by the end of the month. However, I’m going to do my best; this one is number eight, and I’m well on the way to getting the ninth done (and it’s a Major Arcana piece, too!)

In fact, I’m busy enough that I’m going to cut this update short and get back to work. Cheers 🙂