Tuesday, June 21, 2016

tarot blog hop: junk mail tarot


I'm excited to be participating in my first tarot blog hop!

blogWrangler Morgan Drake Eckstein came up with this month's theme: Junk Mail Tarot...A tarot art project for non-artists! The idea is to make a tarot card using junk mail, old magazine photos, or stock photos online. Then discuss why you chose those images for that particular card. This seemed perfect for me since I create tarot and oracle decks using old book illustrations, vintage photos, and art I make on my iPhone.

I decided to do an iPhone photo collage (using photos from Unsplash.com) representing the tarot card Temperance. It shows a dancer deftly balancing on a stack of stones which floats on the ocean. Temperance, to me, is about learning to stay balanced and going with the flow despite changes in the "current" of your life.


Here are a few of my favorite cards I've already made.


This is the Fool card from my "Selfie" tarot deck for a #diytarotchallenge last year. It's my silhouette superimposed with a photo I found on Unsplash.com. The image depicts my head as a spiral floating in the clouds. For me the spiral represents an unending flow of energy that propels you into new experiences and higher evolution with each revolution. The Fool is a perpetual seeker and dreamer. His head is in the clouds and he's always looking for the next new experience to take him to higher levels of understanding.


This card is from my Tarot Everywhere deck. In the tarot, The World features a woman dancing inside a circle. The circle is a key symbol because it represents something coming full circle, completion, and wholeness. At the end of the series of trumps, The World card signifies you've integrated the lessons of the other major arcana. This image of a basketball going through the hoop symbolizes winning at the game of life. The rim is the circle and the basketball (also another circle) dances within it. This card represents success, achievement and fulfillment.


This Sun card is from a personal deck I made for Black History Month earlier this year. The Marseilles version of this card depicts two people together in kinship. I used this photo of Venus and Serena Williams for The Sun to depict victory, happiness, and also familial love. It's wonderful when you've accomplished something alone, but I think success is sweeter when shared. Watch the video on how I made this deck using the Photo Artista Haiku app.


22 comments:

  1. I like your Temperance... it also reminds me a little of 2 of Pentacles...

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    1. Thanks Karen. Yes, Temperance and the 2 of Pentacles feel similar to me but with the 2 of Pentacles you're having trouble staying afloat and keeping your balance while with Temperance you know everything's going to be okay.

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  2. Temperance was lovely but your World made me laugh. "Nothing but net, baby"

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  3. Welcome to the blog hop! Your cards are wonderful and I like your interpretations!

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  4. Perfect depiction of Temperance!

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  5. These are wonderful! So much awesome creativity.

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  6. I love them all, they are very authentic, great perceptions! :)

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  7. Fab cards and many thanks for introducing me to Unsplash! I use my own work for my deck, but am always slightly concerned about copyright when just using images elsewhere.

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    1. Thanks. Unsplash is a great resource for photos. You can use them for free even for commercial purposes. I've also checked with them about photos of people and you can use those commercially too because there's already a model release required from the photographer.

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  8. I love your Temperance card, and it immediately brought to mind the Angel Moroni on top of the LDS temple here in Salt Lake...balancing where things are constantly in flux. Now I am thinking of creating a deck myself--thanks for a wonderful idea!

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    1. I just looked up a photo of it - beautiful!! I wrote a guest blog post on making a deck for Little Red Tarot. Here's the link in case you're interested: http://littleredtarot.com/how-to-make-your-own-tarot-or-oracle-deck/

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  9. I like your Fool! Actually all of them are very creative and beautiful!

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  10. Love this. I am going to give it a go. Thanks for sharing. Ali x

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  11. These are all gorgeous. I think I love the Fool best, it has so much depth. Tough, though, as they all are so creative and inspiring. Thanks for sharing them all with us :)

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    1. Thank you so much Chloe! Awesome compliment coming from another deck designer!

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