Visual Arts

The Templar Tarot

Allen Chester is the creator of The Templar Tarot.

Did you attend art school, and if so, did you learn anything useful from it?
Yes I did attend. I have a BA degree in fine art. I learned many valuable lessons in school. The values of being resourceful with ones own actions and to appreciate like-minded people, both students and professors, were profound lessons.  I learned from this experience that "art" is not temporary like so many things in our society.  The fact that art can generate emotion is a powerful lesson. I learned that the practice of my art would be a life long journey.  I consider myself blessed to have received knowledge from "mystical" professors.  I attended college from 1975-1979 and the lessons learned then still apply today.

When did you become interested in tarot?
Being a student of art I started an appreciation of the art tarot decks in college.  Through the years the tarot would come in and out of my life.  Looking back it seems like a gradual build-up of my awareness.  When I met my significant other, Cathy, in 1991 my art started to take on the images of tarot. It was not intentional on my part and it wasn't until 1995/1996 that people around me started associating my paintings with tarot images.

What was it about the Templar legends that attracted you?
This is a hard question because I'm still figuring it out.  Instead of the legends being attracted to me, the legends seemed to be trapped inside the blank canvases and it was my job to release them. It is as though I was on the outside and the images were trapped in another world and depended on me to bring them to life once again. I do not think I was alone in this task. It seems as though the Templars have been reaching out to artists and authors throughout the world and making their presence known once more. I would like to think that in my recluse in my studio at my easel that the Templars are here. They were not eliminated from the face of the earth despite the extreme measures that the Church took to do just that.  You can call it an energy of existential experience that is attracting me and my fellow artists to these warrior monks.  I think the mystery is holding my attention and my openness to the legends.  The simple fact is that we do not have a clear knowledge of just who the Templars were and I sense that they want us to know more.  In the recent past we only knew the history that was allowed to be told but eventually we will uncover the true story.

Creating all the illustrations for a tarot deck of 79 cards is a big project, especially since one card can take many hours of work. Did the project ever seem overwhelming?
When someone is doing what he or she loves to do the energy is there like magic.  The deck took six years to complete. Judgment was the first, painted in 1995 and the Magic Flute was the last, finished in September 2001.  Once the goal to complete the deck was set, there was no hesitation.  I can say from experience that creating a tarot deck is a journey of self-introspection that will take you on a strange, yet wonderful trip. It is a big project that will take you through all of your emotions, physical and mental exhaustion, and finish with a fulfillment that tells you that you are alive!

What projects are you working on now?
Since the Templar Tarot was published I have been working on paintings for another tarot deck. This deck will be a sequel deck to the first. I expected the Templar influence to wane after the completion of the Magic Flute but instead it grew. I was not sure the meaning of the Magic Flute when I painted it but knew it belonged with the Templar deck. It was later that I realized that it was the Fool for the sequel deck. As I put the images for both decks side by side, I can clearly understand the purpose of the sequel deck. The images, while similar, are on a different plane. See for yourself by comparing the Fool and the Magic Flute. It will be at least another year before I am ready to print the sequel deck but it is in process. Since none of the paintings for the Templar Tarot or the new deck are for sale individually we are making them available as prints and will have them on my website soon.  Another project that is in process is an expanded book on the Templar Tarot deck that Daria Kelleher has written. She has developed each of the Major Arcana images with a narrative and much more detailed historical relevance to the Templars.

The Templar Tarot is available from: www.templartarot.com

All images copyright Allen Chester

The Gaian Tarot

Joanna Powell Colbert is the creator of the Gaian Tarot.

1) You live on a small island. What’s it like?

I think everyone who lives here has the consciousness of knowing it's a very special place. We are privileged and blessed to be able to live here.  Our spirits are nourished by the natural world every time we walk out the door.  I don't know anyone who doesn't feel that way, even when they don't agree on politics, religion or anything else.  The population is small, around 800 or so -- more in the summer  -- but even still there are several overlapping communities. Lots of artists, alternative/holistic types, organic farmers, musicians -- but also fishermen and ranchers and loggers.  Over the last few years a lot of wealthy people have started to move here too.  So it's quite a diverse mix of folks.

Living here has all the pleasures and challenges of small town living -- both a strong sense of community, and a rumor mill that never quits. There's a lot of controversy over development. Most of us of course would like to see the island stay as rural as possible. It's becoming more and more difficult for moderate and low income people to live here, which is distressing.  I volunteer for several island groups, including the conservation land trust that works to preserve open spaces, and the community land trust that provides affordable housing.

Sometimes I miss town life -- I miss a lot of things that happen in the evenings in town  because it's just too much of an effort to get there with the ferry wait and drive.  Nowadays my most favorite getaways are to Big Cities -- New York, San Francisco, Victoria BC.  I guess you always crave what you don't have.

2) When did you become interested in tarot?

I picked up my first Tarot deck, the Rider Waite Smith, around 1970. I played with it for several months, looking the meanings of the cards up in AE Waite's book, which was rather obfuscating.  He really enjoyed making things as difficult as possible to understand, I think.  This was before Mary Greer wrote "Tarot for Your Self," which revolutionized the way most of us work with the Tarot.  During those first months in 1970, I kept turning up the 9 of Swords over and over again in almost every reading I did.  The 9 of Swords is a card of great grief and nightmares, showing a woman sitting up in bed with her face hidden in her hands.  In September of that year, my high school boyfriend was killed by a drunk driver and I embodied the woman depicted in that card.  That pretty much unnerved me (I was only 18 at the time) so I
put the cards down for about ten years.  I came back to them in the early 80's with the publication of the feminist deck Motherpeace, and I've been a Tarot aficionado ever since.

3) Creating all the illustrations for a tarot deck of 78 cards is a big project, especially since one card can take 100 hours of work. Has the project ever seemed overwhelming?

Every day.   I just had a party to celebrate the completion and publication of the Major Arcana.  It feels like a giant milestone that I was able to complete these 22 cards.  I was encouraged by people in the Tarot community to self-publish an edition of the Majors when they were finished so they wouldn't have to wait another few years for the entire deck. I'm so glad I did.  At least now I have the cards out into lots of hands and they are already becoming alive for many, based on the cards and emails I've received.

But I still have 56 cards to go -- the Minor Arcana.  In order to work more quickly, I've begun to develop a creative process that is a marriage between the traditional medium of colored pencil painting and the digital medium.  More and more, I go back and forth between the two -- scanning my drawings and paintings, tweaking them in Photoshop, printing them out and doing more handwork then scanning them again to add the finishing touches.  It saves a lot of time, and takes me into some new and interesting creative territory.

4) The major arcana cards in the traditional European tarot have various biblical and occult associations that have developed over many centuries. Since you are creating a modern Gaian version, you have reinterpreted and renamed some of the cards – for example, the traditional “Judgement” card has now become “Awakening.” Have you heard any complaints from tarot “purists?”

No, and I don't expect that there will be any complaints. There's no reason for them. There are many people who love to work with antique decks or with modern occult decks, and there are plenty for them to choose from. A preference for antique or occult decks is just that -- a preference.  They won't buy or work with any revisioned decks.  But anyone who is a Tarot aficionado knows that we are in the middle of a grand Tarot renaissance, and reinterpretations of the cards are common. We have the Buddha Tarot, the Gay Tarot, the Mermaid Tarot, the Ferret Tarot, the Goddess Tarot, Rock 'n Roll Tarot -- you name it, there's a Tarot out there for just about every interest.

That's one of the most compelling things about the Tarot to me, and why I think it has such broad appeal.  Even though the Tarot was born in the cauldron of 15th century Italy, with its Medeival/Renaissance worldview, it clearly embodies universal spiritual principles that are seen through many different cultures and lifestyles.

5) What other artists inspire you?

Emily Carr is probably my favorite artist, although she is not as well known in the states as her contemporaries O'Keefe and Kahlo.  I used to consume books of paintings by Gustav Klimt and the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Evelyn deMorgan, and also the illustrators from the late 19th/early 20th centuries -- Rackham and Dulac. I also love the work of contemporary illustrators like Trina Schart Hyman, Mary Azarian, Thomas Canty.  My list of favorites is pretty long.

6) Have you any other projects in the works?

Creating the artwork for the 56 Minor Arcana cards will keep me consumed for the next two years, as I also work part-time on my web design business.  And I create photo-illustrations of local landscapes and wildlife and sell those here on the island.  Those are an exercise in immediate gratification, as they only take a few hours to do instead of 80-100 hours like the Tarot artwork!

Bio / weblinks:

Joanna Powell Colbert's mythic art has been widely published in alternative magazines like SageWoman and PanGaia for nearly twenty years. Amber Lotus Publishers call her one of “the most accomplished and well-loved artists in the Goddess-spirit community.” She lives on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, where daily encounters with the mysteries of the natural world continue to inspire and inform her work. She has combined her love for the natural world with her love for symbolic, spiritual art in her Tarot deck-in-progress. It can be seen here:  http://www.GaianTarot.com   and a review of the deck can be found here:   http://www.TarotPassages.com/Gaian.htm

All images are copyright Joanna Powell Colbert.

The Stone Tarot

Alison Stone is the creator of The Stone Tarot.

.

You are a licensed psychotherapist. Do you use artwork with your clients?

I'm a Gestalt therapist, so I use whatever emerges in the session. It has to originate with the client, though. For example, in my old office I had artwork on the wall (chosen by the landlord) and sometimes people would comment on it. Also, occassionally I have c lients who want to work with tarot images. We can work with anything -- events, dream images, posture, our relationship. Art is just one more possibility.

The only time I've worked with clients making their own artwork is when I see children. Drawing can help them express things more easily than simply speaking.

.

Your use of color is bold and vibrant. Has that always been your painting style?

As long as I've been painting. I love color and am drawn emotionally and spiritually to those colors. However, before I started painting I did a lot of drawing, which was always black and white (pencil or charcoal.) SInce discovering painting, I haven't had the same excitment about drawing.

What artists have had a strong effect on you and your own work? There are so many! I love that Blake was a poet and a painter -- he inspired me for years when teachers were saying I had to pick one. I love Henri Rousseau, Kandinsky, the Pre-Raphaelites, Van Gogh...

.

How did you become interested in tarot? Do you use tarot with your clients?

I became interested in tarot as a child when I got my first deck from a toy store. I tried to memorize the meanings and do readings, but it never felt right. Still, I felt so drawn to the deck and the images. I started collecting decks and reading about the variations in images. It was always a fantasy of mine to paint my own, and when I was 24, I just started.
If a client suggests using the tarot, or if I know they are "in to it," then it becoems part of our work. But I have a variety of clients -- some are investment bankers who I doubt have heard of the tarot.

.

 

You are also a published poet. What are you working on now?

My book, They Sing at Midnight, was recently published. (It won the Many Mountains Moving Poetry Award.) So I'm doing the "business" end of poetry -- trying to promote the book, doing mailings, readings, etc. I haven't written much new stuff at all. I spent almost twenty years on the poems in They Sing, so I want it to get out there!

The Stone Tarot can be purchased at:
http://hometown.aol.com/newtarotdeck/myhomepage/business.html

They Sing at Midnight is available from Amazon and other book outlets:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886976147/qid=1101318670/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8153224-5096936?v=glance&s=books

All images copyright Alison Stone

Gallery: Works by Cyclops

Questions for the artist:

What do you love?
Vegetables, fruit, watching wild animals, the body, Renaissance drawings, blue sky and sun.

What artists/works have had a strong effect on you and your own work?
Bring on the eighteenth century! And all those great Chinese painters! And Clodion, Germain Richier and Gaston Lachaise! As well as Munokata, Emilio Greco, Dix, Beckmann, Kollwitz, Bonnard, Cheri Samba, Moke, Zurbaran, Callot, Bonnard, Pissaro, Raphael, Dufy, and Donatello.
I really admire the sculptures done by in the Kamakura period in Japan, the Gandhara period in Afghanistan, and the Gupta period at Sarnath in India.

What are you working on now?
Maquettes for meditation figures, wall reliefs, female buddhas.

What themes (personal, political, cultural) do you find emerging in your artwork, either consciously or unconsciously? Food, impermanence, the inner life.

What do you think of “shock” artists like Damien Hirst? I don't, I'm interested in craftsmanship and technique. Ars longa, vita brevis, shock is short-lived and if you really want that you can always stick your fingers in a wall socket.
There's an old saying about not confusing the finger pointing at the moon with the moon itself, nowadays there is discussion of the hand, elbow, shoulder, clothes, new clothes, emperor and so on, meanwhile the moon has set.
The term artist is now so broad that it refers to anyone choosing to designate themselves as such, or anyone referred to as such by the media... this means the number of artworks is potentially infinite, and the question arises: which forces determine which works receive attention?
Speculators colluding with media and institutions can label any object a work of art and then realise enormous return on their investment. Something to laugh about, maybe the internet will let people see more different stuff.

Are there any trends in art right now that excite you? I'm really pleased at the way museum collections are going online, I can now pay regular visits to my favourite museum, the Musee Guimet, at http://www.museeguimet.fr/

How can people see more of your work or purchase items they like?
Go to the painting and sculpture gallery at veganica.com, or taste the fruit and veg at veganalia.com, or try veganartist.com.

All photographs and artwork are copyright Cyclops
The images displayed are: Headspace, Bull, Who am I, Wings, and Yoga.

Body Artist: Ann George

Ann George is a Mehndi artist who operates Spirit Vision Henna Tattoo in Florida.

How did you become interested in henna tattoos?
I became interested in henna tattoo by accident. I was helping a young women who was looking for an interesting way to make some summer money. She was not sure what she wanted to do, but knew that she liked to doodle.
Browsing at a local metaphysical shop, I found a henna kit that included a book, some designs & henna ingredients. I bought it for her and we set about experimenting with henna tattoo. The paste was wonderfully fragrant, the designs were fun... the process was captivating and the result was just wonderful.
As an "alchemist" of sorts, I became interested in the discovery of a recipe for the perfect paste. To test the paste, I had to do henna tattoos and the more I tattooed, the more I had to learn, the more fun I had, the more satisfied my clients were and there you have it.

Do people always use traditional designs for Mehndi or can they create their own?
I can only speak from my experience as an American henna artist. I offer my clients a choice of traditional henna designs, original designs and of course invite them to create their own. It is my experience that Americans prefer simple tattoo designs. As well, very few choose a full palm design. Most choose a tattoo design for their wrist, ankle or belly. Many choose back of the hand patterns, and some choose a henna tattoo for the foot.

What’s in your henna paste recipe?
Paste recipe's vary..... as a rule my paste includes fresh ground & sifted henna from Yemen, lemon juice, essential oils and a spiced "henna tea". A complete list of all ingredients may be found on line at http://www.anngeorge.com/Spirit/Hennakit.html.

What’s the most elaborate tattoo you’ve ever applied and how long did it take to create?
The most elaborate tattoos I have done are full palm and full back of the hand tattoos. While I would love the opportunity to do full bridal mehndi, I have not yet had anyone order is. Full hand tattoos take about an hour to an hour an a half. Time is dependant on the willingness of the client to sit still. A good example is on line at: http://www.anngeorge.com/Spirit/Mehndi.html

Is the Mehndi culture different from the permanent-ink tattoo culture?
Apparently. I do not have much experience with being a part of either culture... however it is my experience that people who have permanent tattoos often are not interested in henna tattoo as they have a "real one."
People who choose henna are delighted by the flexibility mehndi provides as well as the unique color of the finished design.
Further, the henna paste by it's nature will not produce the same effect as permanent tattoo, so the style of art is different.

All photographs copyright Ann George Studios Inc.
http://www.anngeorge.com/Spirit/Mehndi.html