The Creator’s Deck: An Artist’s Vision and Journey

The Creator’s Deck is an artist’s journey, vision and reimagined take on the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith tarot.

Not only unique, but a working deck, exclusively featuring the 22 Major Arcana cards. As an artistic, intellectual and spiritual endeavour, the deck and Little White Booklet navigate new insights into the cards that became a journey of self-discovery. This is an organic process where the creator’s initial idea is refined through persistent grappling with design and meaning. Each card took on a life of its own, evolving in unexpected, and at times startling ways.

The story of this deck
The combination of English teacher as storyteller, Tarot enthusiast and the appreciation of art to becoming a self-developed artist, shaped the vision for this deck.

I was initially inspired to create this deck because I’ve struggled to find decks featuring only the major arcana. I started by drafting and drawing the cards reflective of the Rider-Waite deck. I explored the artwork of a number of decks to gain a sense of each deck’s mood, theme and the qualities that made these decks a cohesive whole. I am not a trained artist, but from the outset I had a vision to create my own deck, and I enrolled in art classes over eighteen months. This was an invaluable investment, from motivating me to show up and forge on with this project, and the support I gained from the art teacher and class. My original designs, followed with several drafts of my initial concept and drawings, brought the deck to fruition in collaboration with a graphic artist.

The inspiration for my deck evolved from my interest in the Pre-Raphaelite artists. As I drafted a storyboard for the deck, an essential feature of my cards was to include the key symbols derivative of the Rider-Waite-Smith Major Arcana. My research extended to exploring and appreciating the works of artists through the ages. I was drawn to Northern Renaissance, Revolutionary, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and the movements that captured artists’ imaginations. For example, Benedetto Pistrucci’s 1817 depiction of Saint George slaying the Dragon, portrayed on the British gold sovereign. This impression reflects the medieval legend’s symbolism of courage, justice and ultimately good triumphing over evil. Likewise, the Saint George slaying the dragon motif recurs in a number of major.