Makin’ Decks, Checkin’ Em’ Twice

I had a sudden burst of inspiration this evening, and started some tarot inspired pieces that might become a deck eventually! I’m getting back to my roots in a sense. For all of my Hierophanting, and wanting to do it “right”… Fuck it. It’s not going to happen unless I just let it happen organically. Naturally. Where my muse happens to take me. I’m not sure why it is so easy to abandon myself to The Mighty Muses & Their Wind of Crazy when it comes to my spiritual path. “Eris has left the building… Gods, do what you will, but just be sure to drop lot’s of hints.” Yeah… guess who downloaded a Saraswati Raga about three weeks about and totally forgot about it until yesterday? That person was me. Yet with designing a deck, I can’t throw caution to the Muse Wind, and… uh… this is going to be the dumbest analogy ever, but… I gotta just ride that pony. ♬ Ride it… my pony
My saddles waiting… Come and jump on it… ♬ GAH!

I’m not going to do this with the expectation of a deck. That would be nice, but it’s not creatively feasible. I’ll get it all twisted, and it will suck a pheasant plucker’s big toe. That’s a rotten and sordid business that I’d rather as soon avoid. Feet are kinda gross. I’m going to make it a point to make some cards… Wherever the muse strikes. I am not going to have a  set theme, other than the fact that it’s ordinary things of seemingly little value transformed into something magical and beautiful. Of course, there is lot’s of use of pattern, colors, and texture. It’s kind of my stuff that I usually do. Working from bits and pieces, I can weave something in photoshop and illustrator without too much undue stress. I’d like to get some drawing in there, but we’ll see how it pans out. I’m just doing it as it comes, but I do think some of my best work has come from this method. Bits, pieces, fuck around in photoshop, and… see what happens. I’m not going to beat myself up over the symbolism. I’ll use what works, but I’m not throwing in a pomegranate unless a pomegranate works. A seamless composition is more important to me.

One deck that I’ve seen that uses a similar approach seems to be the Gendron. It’s a mix of collage, and illustration, both traditional and digital. I hate that deck. I loathe it. And I shall tell you why… The majors are pretty trippy, and I actually think they’re pretty cool. The minors are a horrible pink-tinted afterthought, with compositions that don’t flow together. It’s all slapped together willy-nilly. I fucking hate Willy, and I’m no fan of Nilly since she tried to bogart my stash… of Sharpies. Ugh! I hate it! I don’t want to do that.

I worked on a High Priestess/Moon today. I’m pretty sure it’s the HP. I always feel a strong IT’S THE FUCKING MOON, BEETCHES! type of energy with her. I wanted to make that a part of it somehow, and it just kind of happened. It’s MUCH more psychedelic than I intended. I knew I’d use color. You rarely see a deck with TONS of color that isn’t sort of in a primitive/naive style (Tarot of the Four Elements), or in a quirky/cartoony style (Sakki-Sakki, Sephiroth). It’s turning out to have a psychedelic yet archival quality.

So far, it looks like a Henry Darger piece… on Acid. The Vivian “HOLY FUCK MY LEGS ARE MADE OF SNAKES AND THE MONKEYS THAT MADE ME ARE MY FRIENDS LET’S EAT SOME TWINKIES!” Girls.

Post? Nope. Not ready to do that. I’ve only got one so far. It might kind of suck, but I don’t think it does. I kind of like her. She’s mysterious and moony, but connected to some pretty amazing currents that require lot’s of drugs to experience. We’ll see. I want to get a few more compositions done before I post. I fear SUCKING. Yet… Since when have I ever really sucked if you give me some stock art, a few beers, some good music, photoshop, an idea, and a properly running Mac? It’s impossible for me to suck that much. Even sucky things can be fixed. My HP might suck compared to what I do next, or she could trump it. I just won’t know till I get a little bit further.

I’ve missed working, though. Truly. My new computer doesn’t have any of my design programs on it, so I have to use my old Power Book, who is very slow and sad. And sooooooooo tired. I need to get me some photoshop on my MacBook, but my old version of Adobe CS2 for PANTHER doesn’t work with Leopard at all.

Bad, Steve Jobs… Bad!

So… Upward. Onward. Let’s get this party started!