Tarot Friday#1 - where it all begins and "The Fool"
As shown in my post https://steemit.com/life/@reinhard-schmid/temple-of-the-secrets I started working on a large scale art project about Tarot cards (Major Arcana only) in the early 90s. It was to be an important part of my life for the following ten years.
Although I learned to read the cards in order to really understand their meaning, this has never been the main issue for me. I always found Tarot more important as a source of inspiration and the book of wisdom. The whole set of the 22 Major Arcana is also a metaphor for the human life, with a soul "materializing" in our world and everything it encounters on the way to the next level. Whatever that might be.
Let me begin with a detail of this funny little guy on the first card "0 - Der Narr" (The Fool)
What might be the most obvious at first, are the colors. I assigned each one of my Major Arcana a color scheme which I thought fits best the theme of a particular card.
"The Fool" to me represents the beginning, openness, instinct and spring. Therefore I chose spring colors, light greens and soft orange tones. The little pink spirals on his "suit" are to support his attitude of carelessness.
The dog represents his instincts and will warn him of obstacles and threats along the way. The Lily in his hand stands for innocence.
Temple of the secrets, total size of artwork is 15ft by 45ft, unfinished
I deliberately kept this short, to give the important information without taking up too much of your time... if you even got to this point ;-) Hope I sparked your interest in my project and to learn from your comments of how to fine tune future posts about my Tarot. Plan to post a card every Friday...
If anyone wishes to use my deck for online readings here on steemit, please drop me a note :-)
All photos/scans by me of my own artwork. The original cards are roughly 20"x40" and painted on glass in "Hinterglas" technique as described in https://steemit.com/art/@reinhard-schmid/what-is-hinterglas
This fool card is so beautiful. I love this! If the rest of your deck is as wonderful this I would love to use these! Have your completed a whole deck or is this still a work in progress?
Thank you for your kind comment and for liking my Fool. Of course there is no way I can tell if you'll find my other cards as beautiful... not reading cards myself anymore ;-)
I did the Major Arcana only like so many artists before. They are completed, but I know a lot of people prefer a full deck to read.
Why don't we just see, if you like the next few cards I plan to post on Fridays and if so, we look for a way how we can get you the files :-)
I'm sure they are gorgeous! I'll be looking forward to seeing more!
I love this. Have you ever had these printed into actual decks of cards to sell?
Whoops! I see I should have read the other comments before making mine! :D You already answered my question. Still, I'm looking forward to the rest!
I did? Maybe I should read the comments too ;-) ...just kidding. I read every comment, most of them more than once and I try to go to every persons page who comments, to see what the've got.
The deck of the 22 Major Arcana is finished, but I never did a full deck with the Minors included. Was never really my intention.
Yes, there is a printed version, but not like a deck you buy i.e. in a bookstore to use for reading cards. Mine is more a rather exclusive limited edition of 77 decks, more a reproduction of my work, rather than a usable deck. The cards are printed on acrylic glass, to have the look of the originals. :-)
They come in a handmade wooden case and each one is signed and numbered.
Cindy and I really enjoy your work. Keep it up!
Thank you, I will try my best and I hope I won't disappoint you. You are both very special to me and your company and support right from my beginnings here mean a lot to me. Wish there really was a "super follow" option or something like that :-)
Wasn't there a wishlist for future steemit improvements around here somewhere?
Very charming artwork! You captured the essence of the fool perfectly. Very excited to see the next one.
I've always been fascinated by tarot. You should check out my friend @tarotbyfergus, he does readings here on Steemit!
Cordial thanks for your kind compliments! It's not only the first card in the deck, but also the very first one I created. Kept on working like that with the first five cards and then took a longer break... after that I worked more following my intuition and created the cards in the order "they came to me"
Thank you also for the link to your friend, I'll be sure to step by :-)
Great! I really like it! The energy of the Fool is amazing, it is everywhere. It is the naivety of the child and the enlightenment of the adult. The Fool is a little God:)
Phew, glad you like it :-) Thank you for the added info on The Fool!
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STOPGreat work and i love the style and like that you explain choices behind it. Looking forward to next Friday and wonder what the next card will be. By that time i will have my Vote power restored (waisted it on my first week not knowing about it) and will get back to upvoting). Cheers
Again thank you for you kind comment and your valued company. Made the "mistake" to take a look at your website to see who you are... dangerously distracting. As if I didn't have enough to explore here already :wink: :smiley:
Hope this question won't offend you, but I'm wondering, if there is a particular person behind your profile... too many posts and I can't get down far enough to an intro, if there even is one.
Hehe.. yes, got my voting power down too much too, from next to nothing to nothing because of too much "enthusiasm". Now I keep a careful eye on https://steemd.com/@ followed by your user name.. in case you haven't found it already.
I'll start upvoting more, when I get my first rewards and its worth a bit more :bowtie:
I know what you are saying. There is so much of interesting content on steemit that it is hard to keep up. This is my intro post and i am the only person behind this profile. All photography is done by me, except daily BeScouted posts, where i am sharing work of great talent from BeScouted - the startup that i have founded to help talents get paid jobs in photography. I am also trying to include some of the images of myself randomly, so that steemit community members can see who they are talking to. Like this one and i think i will be posting more of blog style posts in the future so people could get to know me better :) Is there a way to make a list of people to get the most recent from them? Like favorites? As i feel that i am loosing track of some i want to get all posts from?
Thanks a lot for your explanation and the links. Feels much better, when one has a person with the words ;-)
The favorites thing... have been wondering too and I want to send a request for some kind of "super follow" option to a wishlist that supposedly exists.
This page https://steemdb.com/@reinhard-schmid/followers offers in depth information and I'm just learning to use it. Simply replace the username by our own. There is lots of other stuff you can find out about your own activities there and numbers on just about everything.
As a workaround for not knowing how to have favorites, I keep links to the pages of my favorite users in the bookmarks, so I can check regularly :-)
Great idea about bookmarking, it is strange i did not think aboutr it myself :) Will have to explore API and maybe will ask my friend to a webpage or app that will allow to track explicitly listed people there. Will let you know, because super favorites would certainly be useful. Having a person with the words only enriches the experience :)
Yes, please keep me up to date! Off to my studio :-)
Have a great day!
Check this: https://busy.org/@bescouted
Of course, you can replace your's by any other username!
Really nice. upvoted and resteemed. I am currently posting my own (26ish year old) Tarot cards here on steemit and it fits right in with the theme :-) I look forward to seeing the rest, of the cards and compare them to mine.
Thanks for stopping by. Will be sure to check out your deck later tonight!
What a wonderful project to paint the deck. Your fool is sublime!
Following if I may to enjoy more of your talent
Thank you for your gracious comment. Glad you like my fool.
My pleasure if you choose to follow, hope my posts will be up to your expectations
wow man, you are so talented!
Thank's man! :-) Sorry for being late with my reply.. having a bit of a problem catching up right now.