Oils - Tarot Series: 2018-2022
Each card in the deck is a window into the human soul - an intersection of emotions and issues we tend to encounter throughout the course of our lives.
A meditative tool, the Tarot deck provides insight and inspiration. Traditional elements of Tarot are re-interpreted as still-life objects and rearranged in a surreal setting. This series represents an evolution of states of mind through the years. Below I detail my process and symbolism.*
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1. The VI of Cups
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2. The Ace of Cups
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3. The Moon
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4. Judgement
The VI of Cups
Oil on canvas, 2018. 30”x 20”
Upright:
childhood memories, nostalgia, harmony, and reflection.
Reversed:
living in the past, a disconnectedness from the present, wishing for things to be the way they were once upon a time
Cupped hands and the offerings of the witch. A ritual of inheritance.
This work is the first entry in the series, originating as a pursuit of the magical in the mundane through still-life interpretations of Tarot. The use of containers and reflections aims to recapitulate the elements of the original card and to encompass both the upright and reversed meanings. The VI of Cups establishes recurring elements and builds on a symbolic vocabulary, including the hands of the artist, flooding water, and chrysanthemums.
The water acts as a conduit between the real and the imaginary, spilling from one of the cups into still-life setting. Its contents flood the bottom third of the canvas, over scattered pages of sheet music, creating a warped reflection over staff lines and clustered notes. Chrysanthemums, named flowers of gold, emerge and manifest through mental alchemy. Pure white- a symbol of honesty and loyalty, a reminder to stay true to oneself. A tinge of yellow at the center - remnants of a love’s sorrow. A single white petal floats, swept up by the spill, with a small figure inside its boat, adrift, lost among the surrounding detail and magnitude.
2. The Ace of Cups
Oil on canvas, 2020. 30”x30”
Upright:
connection, new beginnings, empathy, compassion, spirituality
Reversed:
unrequited love, sadness, pain, and repressed emotions
Sensory abundance. A cacophony of color, scent, sound, texture, and taste.
The original card depicts a chalice overflowing with five streams of water - the five senses - held by a floating hand over a vast ocean. Seven lotus flowers drift in the water and a white dove descends from the heavens. The blank pages of the sketchbook replace the open wings of the diving dove. The Artist’s hands occupy different planes: one distant and divine, the other close and personal, each both the observer and the creator in their own right. A shift in agency occurs between the VI and the Ace in light of acknowledging that distance, depicted as a chasm - a rift between what is real and what is not. Suspended in uncertainty, full of trepidation at writing a story still unfolding, the hand which holds the pen holds power over that entire world of touch, and taste, and light, and sound.
3. The Moon
Oil on Canvas, 2020. 36”x48”
Upright:
Illusion, fear, anxiety, subconscious, intuition
Reversed:
Release of fear, repressed emotion, inner confusion
The Moon is an odd card, encompassing nearly everything and yet nothing at all:
unseen dualities, promises, and horrors, the past and present, the wild and tamed, that which we feel and that which we hide even from ourselves.
How many moons can you count?
The celestial body is full, balanced like a pearl on the mannequin fingertips. It’s cold light clashes with the warm flickering of the candle. Echoes of it appear throughout the painting as objects and reflections.
This painting is unique in a couple of ways: first, it contains another card (the V of Pentacles), and, second, it was painted atop a haunted landscape. The V of Pentacles appeared together with The Moon, adding the longing for warmth and fear of destitution to the emotional milieu. It cuts the second window in the haunted canvas, rendering it flat and powerless.
Initially painted in 2018 in a fit of anger and anxiety, this canvas remained hidden for two years. I could not face it. The photos presented here are the only remaining documentation of its original state.
The witch and the girl of the haunted landscape became the wolf and the crawfish depicted in the Tarot. A couple of old paintings (included in Oils - Still Lives and More section of my portfolio) lurk in the background represent the tamed parts of the psyche, replacing the dog. The winding staircase stands in place of the distant tower.
4. Judgement
Oil on Canvas, 36”x36”
Upright:
Judgement, rebirth, inner calling, absolution
Reversed:
Self-doubt, inner critic, ignoring the call
Will you heed the call?
Will you dare?
A gilded frame - a gilded cage. Poised to fly, yet the head hangs low, heavy with fear.
In some ways Judgement is a departure from the symbolic still-life interpretations. The gilded frame, dark city, and light taffeta still harken back to the original elements of the card (angel’s trumpet, graves, and clouds), but the depicted figure thrusts the Self to the front and center, no longer hiding behind the canvas. It is the ultimate reflection of self-objectification, aiming to confront the viewer with the question of how we judge others and ourselves. It’s all about how you frame it, right?
(*) Upright and reversed card meanings adapted from Biddy Tarot