Collaging the Tarot

When teaching my illustration class, I did something I’ve never done. I did the assignment. Well… I did 2/3 of the assignment! Time and real jobs intervened. But the experience helped me to appreciate their trials and tribulations in trying to solve the problem I’d posited for them. When much younger, I had friends who enjoyed reading Tarot cards, and it was a treat to study again the meanings of the cards. I used my cabinet card technique as a stylistic conceit, and could quickly see that as extensive as my collection of unaltered cards is, I’d need more if I were to do an entire Tarot deck. So many of the students’ solutions were ingenious but I did learn that from my vantage point of many years professional experience that I had one edge: I knew how small they would be reproduced. I didn’t labor over details, zoomed in at 800%, that would become invisible in the final product. Today I finally graded my students’ cards. I would probably give myself a pretty low grade for not finishing. Many of them got much higher grades, and they deserved it. To all you fine young illustrators out there, I bow to you.