Thank You!
I am very flattered by the response to the Deviant Moon, thank you all for your support! It can be very nerve-racking to finally unveil a project so long in the making: only one other person beside myself knew the cards existed before I sent samples to USG. (I tend to work in a vacuum, lol). Being around SO many creative spirits here on the board is what pushed me to try to get this work published...I would have happily made the deck, left it somewhere on my hard-drive, and moved onto the next thing (as I all too often do, unfortunately.)
But being around so many inspiring souls pushed me to take the next step, and to the members of the Aecletic Tarot Forum, I am forever grateful! Thank you!
To answer some questions.....
Tarot of the Deviant Moon will be featured in INATS east in January...so I assume the deck will be released by then, at least...
I found the deck listed on a few sites as pre-orders, quite accidentally, so I figured now would be a good time to show a few samples. I must humbly say the rest of the deck will far surpass anything I have shown thus far. The best is saved for later..
I have no idea as to the final size...anywhere from 2.5 to 3 inches wide..I hope for the latter...there is SO much detail in these cards; I don't want too much to get lost.
Each suit has its own realm....
Swords are angst ridden beings set in a medieval world....
Cups are people comprised of fish parts as well as gravestones....
Wands are folks with a tribal, peasant mix, whose bodies are blended with insects and leaves...
Pentacles are based on decayed industry...circa 1890's ish......
YES..EVERY card has a story! I could never create something that did not tap into my spirit somehow. Many of the cards are "reworks" of artwork I have created in the past...ideas that I had abandoned found a home in the deck!
Sometimes, I had to MAKE objects I could find no photo for. As an example, the ten of cups features an old king playing chess with his son....I sculpted an entire chess set for one photo..lol....and there are several spots where I used clay objects as "props".
As far as photos go, there are three major abandoned insane asylums here on Long Island, all only a few miles apart (they have recently demolished one to make way for a Wal-mart...sad...).....the main one I used is Pilgrim State Asylum. I have wondered at its looming structures since a child, as it was near my house, and would often think of the things going on there in the night. I knew it as "Boogie-man Island" and its mystery fed my imagination for many years, so it was natural for me to go back there and try to capture some of its energy and put it into my work. At first, I would take outside photos, but soon enough I would find my way in its long winding corridors alone....very fun!....
As a child, my friend and I often played in a church cemetery. We knew almost every stone. Long Island has many cemeterys with the winged death heads...hard to come across in the rest of the USA., but I'm sure my european friends are familiar with them. For the deck, wings became pants, hats, robes, ect....almost everything is comprised of tombstone parts, using my favorites from childhood.
I finished the deck over the summer in a push to get them ready for USG. I did the entire suit of pentacles in two months...usually 14 cards would take about 6 months....when it was done, I felt my "eyes" were broken....I bent my art spirit!....but now, I am already designing the next deck, hehe. The tarot is just so compelling!
Thank you again so much for your responses and comments!
Your friend,
Patrick Valenza