Tag Archives: art

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The Ace of Cups is Done!

Last weekend was rather an indulgence, in which I was able to work on the Tarot of Bones pretty well uninterrupted. This week there have been more obligations and appointments, and so my time has been sporadic. But I managed to complete the fourth assemblage piece, the Ace of Cups.

I’ve been digging through my stash of art supplies for items to use as the backboard for these pieces. I have a pile of old cutting boards gleaned from the Goodwill outlets, and picked out the best ones for this project, even if not all of them are perfectly rectangular. The handle of the one for the Ace of Cups won’t be in the final photo used in the deck, but it does make hanging this piece easy! And I did end up opting to not use the wooden cutting board shaped like the silhouette of a pig, even as cute as it is.

Speaking of dimensions, you may have noticed by now that every one of the pieces I’ve made so far has been a different size. This may seem at odds with the concept of a tarot deck, in which all the cards are the same dimensions. Fear not–I have a plan! Every one of these pieces will be photographed on a backing, either leather or wood or some other complementary material. The photos will all be bigger than they need to be so that I can trim them down to the appropriate sizes for the cards. Pieces that are rectangular (like the Three of Cups) and therefore closer to the card dimensions won’t have much, if any, of this backing showing. Others that are more square (like Temperance) will have more of the backing showing at the bottom and the top, but the piece itself will remain the primary focus of the card.

Alright, I have a few more assemblage pieces coming together in my workspace; I should be able to unveil the next one sometime this weekend.

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So Where Are We On The First Day of the Year?

Good morning, all! So I’ve officially unveiled the Tarot of Bones, and figured I’d give a quick status update so you know where the project is.

For the past couple of months I’ve been doing a lot of preparation work. This website was actually one of the last things I did; I’ve primarily been collecting supplies for the assemblage pieces, and brushing up on my tarot know-how as it’s been a number of years since I read it rather than my totem card deck.

I admit that I love shopping for art supplies, so having a project where I have the excuse to buy more just makes things all the better! The skulls (both real and replica) have been primarily bought new, as Goodwill generally doesn’t have a taxidermy section! However, I still have a lot of osteological specimens to buy, so I will likely end up with at least some secondhand pieces from private collections. In case you’re curious about the skulls in the picture, the big one is a javelina, the smaller mammal is a raccoon, and the bird is a black-casqued hornbill with a small amount of damage. The other two bird skulls are resin casts of raven and burrowing owl skulls. The smaller bones in bags are mostly opossum and coyote.

But what about that tray, and the bamboo mat rolled up to the side, and the plumb bob and roll of lace-adorned burlap? All of those stemmed from a recent trip to a Goodwill outlet here in Portland. I am an avid thrift shopper, and I’ve found everything from big bags of dried moss to deerskin leather there. Yard sales, antique shops, and the infamous Portland “free box” have also yielded good fodder in the past.

And I’m also a scavenger of natural materials, too. Look at all the dried leaves, ferns and other plants in the title graphic for this site–I collected all of those from around Portland. Most of them were fallen leaves on the sidewalk (also a great place to pick up sticks coats in moss and lichens after a storm.) I also got permission from homeowners to pluck a few fern fronds and other goodies from their gardens. And I pressed them all in a series of out-of-date old biology textbooks whose pages will also be making appearances in some of the assemblage pieces.

In addition to materials gathering I’ve also been researching the tarot. I used to read it several years ago, but eventually set my tarot cards aside to focus entirely on totem readings. I’ve been looking back through some books on the historical meanings of the cards. While each assemblage piece will be a combination of my own interpretation of the cards and the bones I use, I’m also inspired by the commonly-used archetypes of the tarot. So expect some of the old, some of the new, and all aimed at helping you discover your own interpretation of the cards themselves.

So yes, right now everything is in pieces–but they’re pieces that are coming together in my head. I am the sort of artist who lets things percolate in my brain for weeks or even months, and then lets it all out in one glorious creative frenzy. Because most of my time and effort are tied up in my other Big Project, Curious Gallery, an arts festival I’ve organized here in Portland for January 10-11, I’ll probably not be able to work on the first pieces until later in January. By the end of the month I’d like to have a few of the assemblages done, and if I’m going to have all 78 finished by the end of the year, I need to average 6-7 per month.

Wow–sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? I’m not worried, though. Keep in mind that I am a full-time self-employed artist and writer, and I routinely juggle several different projects and obligations at once. So you should expect to start seeing art manifest after January 11. In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted on materials acquisitions, ruminations on the symbols and archetypes I’ll be working with, and other pertinent news.

And thanks for going on this adventure with me!