Major Arcana Tarot Show notes

The day I began to study Tarot in the forest I wrote in my sketchbook regarding the major Arcana cards: "My goal is to depict visually the state of consciousness each archetype portrays. This requires study of the Trumps and their meanings, rather than to just interpret artistically the names of each archetype."

I saw the deck in a full vision, then I went deeper into each card as I studied it, channelling more information and visual details. I took extensive notes, but didn't stop there. As I began to sketch out all the paintings and paint them, the channelling continued during the work itself, and the tarot began to study me.

Painting each one was intensely meditative.


I've always had a great respect for the tarot. Whenever I think of it, I feel a particular hum, a frequency, and I feel the antiquity and the seriousness of it. Even more than that, I feel the presences who created it, whom I call the "Council" .

Because I can feel the presences and sometimes see them, (though all those years ago I didn't realize I could communicate with them and feel their emotions and discern their personalities yet..so) the tarot used to scare me. I could sense the Council who watch over the cards, the creators of the system.



I believe, as with many esoteric systems, Tarot was passed down as a legacy and given to humans. Much in the way other magicians throughout history were given magickal rites systems in visions from the archangels...or healers were given "remembrance" of a system during a vision quest, etc. These systems are far too complicated and deep for them to have been created by one person. I believe they are so so much older than we can imagine.



I've wanted to paint a Tarot deck for more than 15 years, but I hadn't felt ready until recently.
I felt it wasn't right to start until they felt I was ready. And so..my Guides have taken my hand and are leading me through.

In fact, with this deck, I'm having to paint many things I've not painted before and don't really know how; water, for example. I painted these paintings in 2.5 months (building the canvases from scratch to painting all of them), and that's an amazing accomplishment for me, using oil paints. I don' tuse turpentine or any thinners, just walnut oil...although on the final layers I did use some alkyd to speed the drying time. It took me 15 hours a day of painting..and usually one day a week I crashed. if I had to go get groceries, I'd make sure to jog there. When painting something I didn't know how to I'd just hear "keep the brush on the canvas, we'll work it out for you."

In terms of deciding what images to include within each card, my focus was to, instead of hiding meanings in obscure or outdated symbols and images, to bring forth the essence of each personality (which the major arcana is: the Archetypes) within the Figure of each card which we travel through on our path. Since the figures themselves mirror back to us certain personality traits and their strengths and weaknesses, I felt it was important to make those traits very present.



Natural elements I've reserved for the pip cards, since that is their domain. While a spirit/personality moves through growth cycles of the majot arcana, the pip cards affect her journey elementally, spiritually, mentally, and physically...
choosing which ones of these influences should be imbedded within amajor aracana card so depends on the time and place interpretation of the reader, I felt to make this deck more concentrated within each card's essence...rather than clutter with symbols that might not pertain to the actual reading. Perhaps this is because my ability to read (as a clairvoyant/clairsentient/clairaudient) began with no tools, so I'm coming from a different place..but I believe in studying the structure and procedures proper of a system. Being so visual though, I find that many decks' visual vocabularies actually give me an unrelated or confusing image of the archetype at hand many times...or takes me on a vocabulary journey : attaching an image to a word, then to another word, then to an adjective..to finally find out what the original images mean.


Clairvoyants, for example, use a particular system to "see", but each clarivoyant "sees" in a language that is their own, which also speaks and uses the language of the readee of the moment. Yet each clairvoyant has a "master" language that they see and visually speak from a place of neutrality, and this langauge can speak/see/interpret with any other person's language.

and so in the tarot also, there is a clairvoyant lanugage depicted in imagery. A "master tabluea" if you will, upon which a reader will meet with their own master language. Together these will communicate and build a bridge of communication with a readee. The Tarot is the teacher here, the reader is the medium/channel for the readee.


I wanted to search deeply into Tarot...and I knew as I did the tarot would see deeply into me!






The photos here are of me outside Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley, CA, where I presented my Tarot show for the month of October. SR2 Gallery is located inside.

New Blood Milk

This is my wonderful new BloodMilk crescent necklace in white bronze.

BloodMilk has also released a fantastic new lookbook called "The Conjurer", available as a free download on a new website. Feast your eyes here:BloodMilkjewels.com

Halloween Treat

A little belated Halloween Treat news...the artist Amber Michelle Russell, who draws graphite portraits, made a portrait of me and gifted it to me..thanks Amber..it arrived on Halloween! My favorite portrait of hers is Christopher Walken. You can see more of her work on her facebook page: AmberMichelleRussell

Spirit Board Painting details

Forgot a detail on the planchette yesterday, and now my "Spirit Board" painting is complete and ready to be delivered to the gallery tomorrow! I thought it only fitting to use a Victorian theme, and therefore Victorian mourning jewelry on the ladies.

The woman on the right has a round necklace with woven hair of her beloved departed inside, and a "jeweled" necklace made of teeth. The woman on the left has a parrot brooch inspired by Disce Mori Julia Deville shop
And the rings are all lovingly reproduced from the Etsy shop of my favorite Jewel Designer, Blood Milk. There's a Bear Tooth Engagement ring...: Blood Milk Bear Tooth

as well as a LYDIA ring by BLood Milk... BloodMilk Etsy

SPIRIT GUIDE necklace by Blood MilkBlood Milk Shop and I used the "Spirit Guide" necklace hand and turned it into a ring. I think the jewelry in this painting tells as much as story as the overall painting does. Following the hints behind the meanings of all the rings and necklaces and hairpieces gives certain insight into the personalities of the ladies and what they are doing here in this situation.

Spirit Board Painting

I've completed my painting for the Spirit Board Group Show which opens Nov 5th!

Spirit Board Update

IN PROGRESS: Still painting away on my piece for the Spirit Board group show. I'm just a few days away from completion I think! The main elements are here, minus one very special detail that will be painted in a bit later, and I'll post that final photo here when possible. This unfinished painting measures 26" x 36". Building my own canvases gives me the flexibility to build the appropriate shape for the idea, and I love canvas. For the sake of durability though, I'm having to consider moving to board eventually, especially since I like to work large. Transporting canvas is always nerve-wracking...but I am not such a fan of that flat texture. I found a company that makes custom sizes, only problem is they sell their boards raw...so's there's not only no ground on which to paint (and I've had unhappy experiences applying my own gesso to wood), but there's no sealant to protect the paint from wood acids. I'm shocked at how many artists paint oil directly on wood and then marvel at how that wood just soaks in all the paint. That is a process that will devour a painting over time. Wood acids mixed with oil, no ground to hold them in...strange to put all that work into something so unstable. Even canvas expands and contracts over time, risking cracking. Such is the nature of ever-changing organic matter!

Back from the Inner Between

I am working hard on a new large piece for an exciting group show coming to Articulated Gallery in November. The super talented supernatural jewelry designer JL Schnabel of Blood Milk is curating this show. I am ever so excited to see what results of the artists she's collected for this Spirit Board show. When she invited me to paint a Ouija Board themed painting, I knew this was the perfect time, as it's October! (And a super haunted one it's already been. I expect to feel quite a buzz at this show.), especially since I've been working on my Tarot deck for the last few months. Divination all around!

And, since I pushed myself so hard, painting 15 hour days and surviving on a body-abusive (but delicious) diet of cappuccinos, I started seeing a phenomenal Chiropractor who also uses Cranial-Sacral, nutrition, muscle testing..I think my husband finally found the magic naturopath for me! Especially after my fist visit, detoxing hard, I tried to get a little balancing energy from a gemstone nap..when the stones started to chuckle at me and told me "nope! this time you can't rely on outside fix: time to get it right on the inside." I knew we were on the right track!

I was born with the mark of a Shaman, or some say the plight of an artist: sickly child; asthma, allergies ( I could barely eat a thing), battling life and death over and over, hearing that Angel of Death laughing in my face. Doctors could never quite help-some along the way contributed, but mostly they pumped me full of meds that destroyed my immune system. Born a Scorpio seems so apt, and it's no wonder I can communicate with Spirits who've passed over, and an occasional earthbound ghost. More importantly, my illness and these spirits were just trying to get me to remember who I am, and my illness and these hauntings directed me on my path (not without great suffering).

Even though feeling exhausted is one of the most frustrating feelings for me, it's exciting to feel my body working. Each day I know what organ is being cleaned out because I am called to feel the emotion associated with it. As the thoughts and feelings erupt, I am carefully listening, observing, learning. This re-balancing is slowing me wayyy down, which is difficult for me, but I know it's needed after a lifetime of living with dis-ease. As I breakthrough to new levels of healing, I feel I'll breakthrough to new levels of creativity, clairvoyance, feeling..it's endless!
My intuition has led me to naturopathy over the years, and I am so excited to work with a doctor who's listening to what my body is saying right now in the present (instead of using me as a lab rat for experiments, which has been most of my AMA experience). That's a healer!