OK...I have been waiting to comment for days...and now I finally found the time!
I wanted to start by saying that every image is amazing, and each opne touched me deeply. This is a deck made by people who KNOW tarot! People who love tarot...and it really shows!
My comments may seem a little strange..as I tend to see things in cards that maybe weren't intentional...or are a little off...but my intuition kicks in the moment I look at these images, and I can't help but follow...
To begin with...I have no favorite...because they ALL are so imaginative and well done!
*The Fool - starrystarrynight...
I fell in love with your avatar, when I first saw it the other week...not knowing that it would appear as the fool card in the Atc deck!
The baby is so cute...so absolutely perfect as a fool card! And I am trying to think if I have ever seen the fool as a infant before in any other deck...and I don't think I have. So very original idea too...and it just makes so much sense! I love the style too...the face is almost photo realistic...very nicely done!
And of course the jester hat (I have a thing for jesters and all fools...) and the little astrological bib are also perfect touches. Just wonderful!
* The High Priestess and *The Moon- DraagonStorm
The High Priestess is so etherial and mysterious...and really quite lovely! And I love that she is purple too! There's such a spiritual feeling from this card, that makes me want to look closer, and try to understand her better...she appears so elusive and maybe hard to catch! And I like that about her. That's how the Priestess should be! Perhaps just slightly out of this world, and needing me to raise my vbibrational lecvel to see her clearer. This was my spouse's favorite card...and I think because he is finally allowing himself to experience his own feminine traits.
Now...the moon is also quite lovely and mysterious! I read about the Dune connection and I found that to be very interesting. My own interpretation is a litle odd...but I swear...the first time I looked at it...I saw a school of fish there! and i thought...wow! That's so watery and cool! And then I looked agian...and saw leaves and thought...oh wow...that's so dark foresty and cool!
I still continue to see different images in this card...and I am continuously in wonder of it all. Like the moon itself...it is changeable, yet constant.
*The Empress *The Hermit - Tk2dsky
This card made me laugh in instant recognition! Yopu depicted the Domestic Goddess so perfectly! The long red hair, barefoot and pregnant, and in the kitchen...her kingdom of comfort, security and creativity!
You did such a great job on her...and I like how there is a subtle growing greenness to everything around her! Those are pomegranites on her dress, right? How fabulous!
The Hermit just rocks! He's so whimsical and sweet...and yet , he has a old soul look about him too. I love the texture...like how you can see the canvas throught the paint. And I always love hand painted cards. This reminds me of more than a few vintage children's book illustrations in my collection. Some people paint gnomes and fairies and dragons like they are trying to capture the real thing sitting in front of them...and that's what this looks like to me!
There's a little favce...like a fairy in his lantern...which I adore. I think I love the childlike image so much because it brings the hermit into a relam that I understand comfortably, and out of the esoteric world!
* The Emperor *Temperance - jackdaw* (formerly QueenofPentacles)
The Emperor seemed so simplistic at first glance...but then I realized thatv it's in these simple images that his complexity lies. This card is nicely put together, and I see that the Emperor...when reduced to just the symbols of his rank and office and persona starts to become more clear to me.
He has never been an easy to comprehend card for me, but I get the rich sense of the power, the authority and the responsobility that he represents...by the three symbols here. And by the fact that he CAN be "reduced" to mere symbols...gives me yet more insight into what he is. Very cool, that it can make me think in new ways!
Temperance is...again...perfect by it's simplicity. Mixing, transmutation...the creation of rainbows...out of the balance of light and water, and silver and gold. This is another card that makes me think on a whole different level about what the Temperance really means...and what it's symbols represent.
It allowed my mond to spiral off in new thoughts and wexciting directions about the nature of a drop...refraction of light...andf into the color tone, chakras and music of the spheres! I am starting to think I want to see you create a whole simplified tarot...as it makes me brain think along new and exciting lines!
* The Hierophant - rebecca-smiles
This card is just amazing. The stunning combination of images speaks to my soul very deeply. I can't really describe it...only to say that this card of all of them affects me the strongest. A female heirophant is lovely...but the addition of keys to unlock secrets and opportunities and traditions...and the bees to create a hive mind of spiritual toil and fruit (or honey, I guess!) is just staggering. This might actually be my faviorite Hierophant of any deck. Ever.
There is still so much more here that is just teasing my intuition...tickling the mysteries, so to speak...that I can't say more yet...but wow, is it ever fascinating, provocative and absolutely stunning!
* The Lovers *The Sun- blackroseivy (formerly danubhe)
I love both of these cards for similar reasons. They both remind me so much of ancient texts, and vintage esoteric occult illustrations. I know that you aren't happy with the scans...but I have to say I quite like them...and I know this is going to sound strange...so I'll try to explain it the best I can...But it seems to fit the image.
Like how old frescos have that patina...that aged look of cracking and dirt that gives it that authentic old feel...the digital pixilation sort of does that same thing with your images.
The Lovers has an innocence and grace, and I love the hinty of the angelic presence that is just visable in gold
The Sun has a similar innocent quality,and sweetness about it and the sun disc itself is magnificent.It has such a cool medievel illuminated manuscript feeling.
I admit that seeing a different scan might be cool...but I think in the long run, I will prefer these images! I think that they are fine the way that they are.
* The Chariot - Langustl
Man, your style is just potent! It is so colorful, eyecatching, and powerful! And just as I love all the images from your deck...I love this one just as much! What a great interpretation of the youthful rebellious exhuberance of the Chariot! This image makes me think that you should have a line of greeting cards (if you don't already!) because your style is so wonderful...I want to share it with everyone!
* Strength - HudsonGray
This is a fabulous image. You are just so damn talented! I love that you included an explaination of the images as well. I think the mask of the Greenman (green woman?) is very apparent, and I loved hunting for the little moths. It's a real powerful image, both soothing and exciting at the same time. Strength has always been a card of grace and force for me...the balance of inner strength that is not alarming but soft...and the anticipation of harnessing great power...it comes across so beautifully in your card.
*Wheel of Fortune - Gayla
This is another card that is very powerful in it's simplicity. I love the feel of the colors and the dark symbols...like something drawn on the floor of a great Occultist's work room! I love how the Snake appears to be a symbol itself...the triskelion, or the infinity sigil...it's appears to be both at different times to me. And thew astrological wheel denoting planetary movement as well as time movement as well as cycling through the Houses of the Universe...this is a great interpretation of the wheel!
*Justice - April
This card just rocks! It's the first one that made me giggle out loud, and I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's a great veiw of a card that has never been an easy one for me to interpret. I like the idea that justice is not necessarily so cosmic and karmic, but down to earth, and as real and possibly fallibleas a group of humans can be. It reminds me so much of all the times I tried to get out of jury duty...and of the time that I stopped trying and had a great insight into the realm of crime, punishment and human nature.
And while I know the South Park homage wasn't originally intended...it actually brings this card into a whole 'nother level for me, as just how laughable and illogical human failings and goverment justice can be. Great great card.
* The Hanged Man *The World- valeria
Both of these are mind blowing. There is so much rish detail and beautifully rendered imagery here!
The hanged Man is really well thought and well executed. I love how iot remionds me of Odin hanging from the world tree and discovering the runes. It has an oriental feel to it too...like a ninja in perfect balanced kata on the tree...a sign of meditation and sacrifice so aptly displayed. I know there is still more layers here that i am just barely aware of, and I am excited to see where else it might lead me.
The World is also stunning.I found an awesome relevance as it pertains to the Fools journey too. Here is the fool with backpack and map, at the end , and ready to begin again...with the whole world at his feet, waiting. It's just wonderful. And I like to think of this figure standing on the moon, the realm of imagination and intuition to veiw the map. And is that a little devil crawling out of his pack? I also get a sense of an aztec pyramid and the holy grail in there...although i'm not sure that is what you intended...it is so wonderfully intriguing! Again...this card still hadss many secrets to divulge and many wonderous layers to look into. It's going to be fun!
* Death - Bat Chicken
Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.This card, when I first looked at it, I thought it was photo collage. Only on closer inspection did I see the canvas texture and realized it was a painting. It is haunting, sad, beautiful, arcane,comfortable, silent, mysterious,impressive, lonely, inevitable, hopefull and longing. And I didn't expect it to be such a powerful emotional image for me but it truly is. Ooh...and gorgeous too..I said that already didn't I?
* The Devil - Eraserqueen
Man...I love this Devil! I love all your work of course, including the nifty multilimbed snakey devil you made for me too! But this one is so slyly seductive and ...shiny! His expresson is perfect. He reminds me of some exotic island fire dancer, ready to show another trick, or something far more erotic! Hee! He really is all the stuff that makes up the devil without showing the obvious trappings...of horns and bat wings. He's an accessable devil, and I really love that about him. Ok...maybe I have said too much about my own psyche on why the devil needs to be accessable at all...but he is really a great card!
* The Tower - MrsOnePotato
such a brilliant and beautiful style! I love what you did with the medium, as you created such a soft watery image of something that is usually so scary!
I love the litle people...they remind me of a jewely artist I knew once upon a time...the way they fall looks gracefull, and as if they were ready for the inevitable fall. The stylized lightning is beautifully rendered ...as is the building (with the title number!) and the crown at the apex...it's just so pretty. It still definitely gets the point and the meaning across though...even though it is soft and beautiful...like the sigh that comes with the knowing as the foundation crumbles around you. You have a great talent.
* The Star - OnePotato
This card is truly lovely. It is everything that the star should be...hopefull, and serene...and yet it has a touch of whimsy and humor to it that I just adore. There is like a puzzle here...a mathmatical or figure puzzle..perhaps. But I feel like the figures are pieces that if they would all fit together in a new configuration there would be a sudden and great ephiphany and some mystery of the Universe might be solved! I can't tell for certain...but I know that your work is really some of my new favorite art! I keep looking at Trotgarden's images of your deck and drooling over just how lovely they are.
* Judgement - Euripides
What can I say? Other than this image is just astounding! It is so beautiful, so gorgeously rendered and so perfect for the Judgement card...that I was actually speechless when I first saw it. It has that quality...that ability to transport you somewhere else, and transform you as well. Truly an effective and perfect card. The colors, the expression you have captured and the feel of this painting makes me want to be in some sort of transition right about now...if I can feel the perfect peace that this card resonates, than I am so ready for the judgenment day!
Ok...my own card musings will have to wait...as this took longer to type up than I realized! LOL!
Thanks everyone for sharing your talent and vision!
, and I liked the way the moon card turned out in that deck, and since that was one of the cards that needed a creator, well, it made my life a little easier.