The Tarot Room – Georgianna

Take a look at these Tarot cards drawn in ballpoint pen by Dana Van Hassel.

There’s only a few, but they’re really nice.

I like the look of the blue ink. It gives the pictures a doodle effect, fun but still serious.

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Painter Francesco Clemente has turned New York City’s cultural elite into a Tarot deck.

And if you’re lucky enough to be in Florence in the next two months, you can see it at the Uffizi Gallery.

Clemente became interested in Tarot about three years ago. It inspired him to create his own deck using many of his friends as models.

To name just a few, Salman Rushdie is the King of Swords, Edward Albee the Emperor, Jasper Johns the Hierophant, and Diane von Furstenberg is Strength.

He’s made Scarlett Johansson the Queen of Swords, Fran Lebowitz Justice, and his own wife Alba the Star.

Clemente himself is in the deck twice, once as the Ace of Swords, and again as the Fool.

Each piece is about nineteen by nine and a half inches, and done in watercolor, guache, ink, pastel and colored pencil.

I bet it’s amazing!! I’d love to see all 78 pieces. And if he ever makes it an actual deck, I want one.

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Le Bateleur

Yoav Ben-Dov has reproduced Nicholas Conver’s 1760 Tarot of Marseille, and he shows us how he does it.

In the video below, you can see the restoration process with the Magician as an example.

The CBD Tarot restoration is based on several versions of the Conver deck printed between the early 19th century and 1960.

The black lines from each of the decks he used were printed from the same woodcuts made in 1760. Only the colouring is different.

Ben-Dove copied the lines by hand with ink on paper, then scanned them into a computer in order to clean them up, and re-colour them.

He made some other changes as well, that you can see in the video. You can take a look at all the cards on his website.

It’s a nice deck.

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Take a look at this bellydance rendition of the Justice, or Adjustment card, by Irina Akulenko.

Talk about balancing the Sword of Power! She’s incredible.

The clip is from last year’s performance of Tarot – Fantasy Bellydance by Venus Uprising, a bellydance troupe in New York City.

They’re keeping the ancient art very modern. After watching some of their videos I can’t help but want to bellydance myself.

The whole performance is available on DVD through WorldDance New York, where you can find more clips from the show.

Pictures of each of the Tarot characters are posted on the Venus Uprising site.

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I’m in San Francisco right now and loving it!

And as I like to do when I’m home, I’m running around with my camera, looking for Tarot symbols in the streets.

I started making a San Francisco deck last year while I was here, and I’d love to finish it this time round. But these hills are daunting, and I’ve got so many pictures to find.

It might take another visit to finish the job, but that would be okay. I’ll be more than happy to come back.

Here are a couple of shots I took last year. One might end up the Empress, and the other, the Lovers.

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The Science Tarot

The designers describe it as ‘a creative science communication project that combines science, art and mythology into a Tarot deck…”

It’s the Science Tarot, a group project engaging the skills of artists, Tarot readers, and of course scientists. Various scientific theories or stories are identified with particular cards. The results are really interesting.

The 2 of Swords, for instance, looks at gravity, and how every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. The Empress is the story of Mendel’s Peas, and the 7 of Wands describes the process of expansion.

It’s a brilliant way to look at the cards. Not to mention, a chance to expand our rational side a little, while engaging the unconscious.

The website lists Logan Austeja Daniel, Martin Azevedo, and Raven Hanna as the creators.

While the artists involved are Suzanne Forbes, Shari Arai DeBoer, Kristian Johnson Michiels, Kristy Whitehouse, Janelle Schneider, and John Daniel.

I hear someone from the project will be presenting at BATS this weekend. I look forward to their talk, and a chance to get a copy of the deck.

Take a look at the videos below to see animated versions of the Hanged Man and Sun cards. And to see more, visit Horgworm’s YouTube channel.

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The Incidental Tarot grew out of a writing project, the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where participants commit to writing a 175 page novel within the 30 days of November.

Having successfully completed a 30 day novel last year, Holly DeFount was so inspired that she decided she wanted to try the same type of thing with her visual art. She challenged herself to create one original piece of art every day in 2011.

She chose to format each piece the size of a 2.5” x 3.5” trading card, and before she knew it, her daily drawings were becoming a Tarot deck. She decided to go with it and The Incidental Tarot was born.

DeFount wants to be clear about the ‘incidental’ nature of the deck. The images, like all art, are a mixture of the intentional and the unconscious, but she meant to draw what she’s drawn.

The deck is incidental only in that it arose from another project, and wasn’t originally intended. But it certainly is a lovely surprise.

She’s decided to publish it herself and like so many Tarot creators, is looking for help, in this case with the printing and promotion of the deck.

She’s got herself an IndieGoGo page and is offering a copy of the deck to people donating $25 or more.

Check it out. It’s pretty, and magical, and I love how it came to be.

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I’ve been considering it for a while, but I think Leisa ReFalo of The Tarot Connection may have finally convinced me to take a cutter to my favourite deck. Well, maybe not my original favourite, but one of the copies I’ve got hidden in my Tarot cabinet.

If you’re a Tarot lover with a crafting nature, take a look at this video to see Leisa’s border cutting techniques and tools. She uses the Thoth deck as an example, and I think that’s what sold me. It looks beautiful without the frames.

But Leisa doesn’t stop with just border cutting. She also embellishes, showing us how to gild the edges and use just the right amount of iridescence to highlight a particular symbol.

She’s obviously quite expert at the game, slicing with ease and warning us of the crafting pitfalls possible in the modification process. And then of course, there’s the gallery of decks she shows at the end, proving she’s done it more than once.

I’ve got to get myself a cutter, maybe a rounding tool and some gold pens. This could be a disaster, but I’m going to try.

And for a slightly different border cutting technique with different tools, take a look at Donnaleigh de La Rose’s border cutting video. The cards look great.

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Here’s a worthwhile project to get behind – Robert M. Place’s 3rd edition of The Alchemical Tarot.

Harper/Collins in London published the original version of this deck in 1995, and Place himself republished it in 2007. Both editions have sold out.

Fortunately for me, I got myself one of the originals back in 2003. But if I’d known it was going to be worth as much as $2,000 just a few years later, I might have treated it more gently, or at least kept the box.

It’s a gorgeous deck, filled with magic. The images are beautiful, but even more importantly the messages are brilliant. It’s alchemy expressed through the lens of the Tarot, and is unlike any other.

The second edition of the deck, called The Alchemical Tarot: Renewed, updated the first version. And the third edition has even more changes, including a second Lovers card.

Apparently, Harper/Collins thought Place’s original depiction of the Lovers was too risqué. Now we can decide for ourselves. I can’t wait to see it.

Also updated in this third printing, are the card backs and the little-white-book, which has become a little bigger.

Place is ready to go to print, and he’s going to do it no matter what. But he’s got an IndieGoGo page and is offering some wonderful gifts for those who’d like to help him raise the cost of printing.

Take a look at his page and consider helping an inspired deck be reborn.

Marcia McCord is one of the new hosts on Beyond Worlds. She’s also the creator of four Tarot decks – the Picture Postcard Tarot, the Art Postcard Tarot, the Victorian Trade Card Tarot, and the brand new Tea Tarot.

All of them were put together from actual postcards, trade cards, or ads from the turn of the 20th century. And they’re amazing.

Marcia proves that Tarot symbols are hiding everywhere. None of the images she chose were originally meant to be Tarot cards, but all of them made the transition with little effort.

The Picture Postcard Tarot and Victorian Trade Card Tarot were out of print for a while, but Marcia’s made a limited second run of both, and they’re available now through her website.

I just ordered a Picture Postcard deck for myself and can’t wait till it gets here. If you’re interested, you should get one soon. They’re going to go fast.

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