I Don't Believe In "It"

Have you ever encountered an amazing artist and thought "Wow! Can you imagine what a Tarot deck by [him/her] would look like?! I want! I want!"

Well, this happened to me over the weekend. I was at a local juried Arts and Heritage Festival and came across the utterly gorgeous watercolors of artist James Browne who, incidentally, lives in the same town where I went to college!

So anyway, I purchased The Lost Button and The Lost Linden, and Mr. Browne was kind enough to offer to sign them for me. Of course, I just had to ask, "Have you ever considered doing a Tarot deck?"

I had considered not asking at all, considering that his handout mentioned that "God's love" was his greatest inspiration (I figured he may be a Christian opposed to anything smacking of the "dark arts".)

He said he'd been asked to do "lots of things", but won't do a Tarot deck because he "doesn't believe in it". I totally believe that an artist should only paint what he/she feels compelled to--because I have the suspicion that "selling out" (or painting something that the artist isn't connected to on a deep level) can be "felt" by those who view/buy the work (and I said as much to him).

I didn't press Mr. Browne into explaining what was, exactly, the "it" he didn't believe in. Suffice to say, I visited Mr. Browne's website, which took me to his blog--where I discovered that he is, indeed, on a "Christian walk"...which means that, unless he "backslides", I'll never see a Tarot deck by him.

*sigh*

At least his lovely artwork is available for us to acquire! (Incidentally, Mr. Browne's art is featured in the book The World of Faery, which includes the work Linda Ravenscroft and Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Recognize those two ladies from the world of Tarot?)

-- Janet Boyer

Lost Button © James Browne. Image used in accordance with his online policy.

Comments

[Erin]

That's ok. My favorite artist is Frida Kahlo, and there is no way she would ever have done a Tarot deck. Frida was an atheist and was strongly opposed to "superstition".

On the other hand, another artist I love is Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch was a die-hard Christian, and would have had a heart attack had he found out a Tarot deck would ever be published based on his art and named after him. (Assuming he knew what they were-which is not very likely, but possible.)

I can't afford the art, so I will settle for pictures in books!

[James D. Wickson]

I love the work of Frida Kahlo and if she knew about Tarot cards being used for card games, I don't think she would scoff at the idea of doing one. Without intending to do so, you may have given us an example of how the occult stereotypes surrounding Tarot may be inhibiting creativity. Let us not forget our Tarot history. It is now an accepted fact amongst playing card historians that our favorite 78 card deck was designed for card playing and that the early Tarot trump imagery was clearly inspired by Christian themes. Mark was correct in a previous post that Tarot is both a card game and an oracle and to this I would add that Tarot is also an artist's canvas. It would be good for culture if the artistic community were more aware of actual Tarot history. In the case of James Browne, I think a Tarock or French suited deck might be good medium for him. Tarock decks, although not normally used for divination, have often depicted fantastic figures such as mermaids and unicorns and therefore they would be a great canvas for many fantasy minded artists.

[Kirsten]

Same thing happened to me about two weeks ago. I'd been thinking of what a Georgian (the country) Tarot might look like and that my fav Georgian artist, Nick Japaridze, does very Tarot-like paintings. The next day he sent me the address for his new website (http://www.nickjaparidze.com/). Talk about synchronicity! I asked if he'd ever considered doing a Tarot deck, but alas, no response.