Here I am with a foolish young heart (and thin figure!). This is 1995 while working on my first tarot deck: the Shapeshifter Tarot

This is the painting that determined my artistic path. The Sorceress was the sample I painted before landing my first tarot contract with Llewellyn Publications.

Here's a Shapeshifter portrait I did for 60's rock icon, Donovan. I flew to San Francisco and presented the framed painting to him in person at a 1997 Whole Life Expo (my apologies for the poor photo quality--I know I have more somewhere).

Here I am in 1998 at an Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale graduation. At the time I was working on Celtic Dragon Tarot, I was also earning a degree in Computer Animation (very new at the time). I face-mapped the Shapeshifter Tarot images on 3D runes and had them spin around in space. No one ever saw anything like that before and it earned me the top prize in my graduating class (and a subsequent job as a conceptual designer and later, college teacher).

Here's my studio. On the wall is a framed Celtic Dragon Tarot press sheet. As my biggest seller, it holds a place of honor in my workspace.

After Celtic Dragon Tarot, my book Celestial Goddesses was published. I met fabulous people along the way, including my dear friend Pam (professional singer/art educator extraordinaire). This was taken during the Spring of 2002.

I also met my future husband at the one and only Celestial Goddesses book signing. It was destiny!

During the past 15 years, I've nurtured an extraordinary friendship with the brilliant and soulful Kris Waldherr.

While I was earning my Masters Degree in Interdisplinary Studies, Animals Divine Tarot was published. It earned a COVR award the following year (2006).

After Animals Divine Tarot, there was Fantastical Creatures Tarot published by US Games. Here I am at a 2007 INATS East signing/reading. I was busy!

While working on tarot decks and books, I had kids! Here I am with my artistic son Connor in 2009.

Here's Kyra in the studio in (early 2009?). My kids love to draw too!

Here's a bookcover-in-progress I did last year.

I also had a 10 year stint as a Collectible Card Game artist, but after over 100 images I retired from the industry.

I also studied martial arts and earned my Black Belt in TKD as a means of getting healthy and feeling more balanced while in the studio. It's easy to neglect oneself when one is so consumed by one's artistic passions! (2008)

I loved writing this book!

Here's a framed press sheet of The Fairy Tale Tarot that hung at a local gallery in 2009.

Here I am at work in the studio. I use the TP for painting--just in case you were confused. (2010)

Here's what I'm working on now...

and here's what I'll be working on next.

It has been a wonderful journey so far. I can honestly say that I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my life. Yes, I did make things happen, but I also feel I’m a blessed person to be able to live my passion and know who I am. Who knows what will be? But for now, I’m perfectly content with the here and now. But sometimes it’s good to reflect back and take pause. I don’t take anything for granted!

~ Lisa

Despite having a conspicuous display of my growing tarot collection including my own creations, my children never showed much interest in tarot. That is until The Fairy Tale Tarot arrived in the mail. I was really surprised by what followed: a sudden interest in tarot and a desire for me to explain everything that I know about the cards. Well, when I talk about tarot, it tugs at the heart of passion — I mean, these cards have formed me and represent so much of my personal and professional growth; though I am well aware that my journey is still within the Fool’s realm with the ever-ignited Ace of Wands in hand.

As a side note, Ace of Wands has been coming up a lot during my readings coinciding with a burst of creative activity circulating around my house at present.

So in addition to pulling cards every morning for my husband and I (yup, the ol’ a card a day…) I have been helping the kids read and study The Fairy Tale Tarot. My 9 year old son, who has always had “attention issues” seems to have no trouble focusing on the cards and gleaning information from the pictures. He’s quite adept at identifying the illustration with the accompanying tales. As for my spunky, extroverted 5 year old daughter, she has actually started reading them for us, the 3 card spread being her method of choice. And though she does not know all the nuances of the stories yet, I’m surprised at how intuitive she is with expanding on the visuals within the context of a given question. She’s a natural! And now she wants to create her own deck — a creative endeavor I will not discourage.

This is what I’ve learned: one is never too young or too old to learn the tarot. My daughter is 5 and I was 25 when I started. If you’re so inclined, pick up the cards and let yourself get acquainted. For my family, it really helps to expand the channels of communication–sometimes as conversational initiator, and other times as a way to pause and reflect on those things that need our attention or need to be reaffirmed.

The Fairy Tale Tarot has proven to be a hit with my entire family. It’s forging a new collective bond as we move through our days with tarot cards in hand.

Oh, and Timmy, aka Studio Buddy, says “Hi!” He too gravitates to creative spaces. He is proof that cats do indeed smile.

Best wishes,
~Lisa

Shapeshifter, Celtic Dragon, Animals Divine & Fantastical Creatures Tarot & The Celestial Goddesses book.

In 1994, I was asked to create sample art for my first deck, Shapeshifter Tarot. Back then, I was the intrepid newbie 20-something year old artist, full of dreams and fresh from recent children’s book publication, book and magazine work and a few oddities in between. I was open to anything and a tarot deck sounded like just the thing needed to satiate my long term ambitious artistic palette and unwavering interest in myths, legends and tarot cards. Little did I know that this would turn out to be a lifelong calling—a burning need to create images that had deep psychological significance within the ever-expansive and fascinating world of divination.

Creating tarot decks as both illustrator and creator/author/illustrator has been a journey into an inner landscape replete with all manner of ethereal visions. My work has never strayed from a bit o’ the fantasy—nothing is direct, photo realistic or even slightly “modern”, rather it represents my need to explore enigmatic images floating within the collective pool of timeless mystery…where the need to understand reality and all its pleasures and sufferings is manifested into legends, fairy tales, myths and all manner of narratives. To me, these help explain that which we cannot understand. My journey as an artist has involved something heartily emotional, compassionate, edgy, and comforting. These emotions have persisted throughout time and are what make us inherently human, fallible and creative.

With my desire to create serving as a reliable guide, I’m trying to reach a place where the soul is called to task and asked to offer up something deeper and more satisfying than the mundane. To me, the stories, the art, the myths and the fairy tales activate something sacred within. These figments of my inner world pour onto paper and create a passage between consciousness and unconsciousness–this is what my tarot art has been: bridge building between various levels of the psyche.
The decks I’ve worked on represent different stages of my life—with each one expressing the obvious growth I’ve made as an artist over the years. I don’t think one deck is necessarily better than another. Rather, each deck is an expression of who I was at the time: from the fresh almost naïve approaches of the Shapeshifter Tarot images, to the more seasoned, confident renderings of my later decks. My second foray into tarot exploration was the Celtic Dragon Tarot, my bestseller to date. The art is a bit bolder, the perspectives more challenging, with values that range from soft muted to bold and striking.  I was in between “newbieness” and being the all-out confident professional. I knew what I wanted to do, but still needed the years to fully awaken as an individual and artist–part of the fool’s journey.

In between decks, I engaged in other creative endeavors including writing/illustrating a book, working as a conceptual artist in the Florida-based entertainment industry, collectible card games, calendars etc.. I also taught at a college while earning my masters degree with a focus on what else: art, Jungian psychology and tarot — all the same goodies that had navigated my muse all along. Phew! It was an intense time full of changes and out of all this emerged Animals Divine Tarot; a deck that showcased both my artistic growth and scholastic achievements. I really loved working on this deck and purposely pushed the colors to reflect the vibrancy of the natural world. Fantastical Creatures Tarot soon followed, a deck that released unfettered creativity and perhaps revealed the deliberate effort to capture more detail without relinquishing the spontaneity of the watercolor brush.

As I was approaching middle age, I was digging deeply through fairy tales with endless threads of inspiration sweeping my soul into lands of make believe. I was immersed in the delightful task of researching and writing; having taken important seats next to my The Fairy Tale Tarot art making chair.  Fairy tales are the first thing I read and loved, launching my creative sensibilities as a child. I was coming full circle, revisiting books illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Charles & William Heath, Sulamith Wulfing, Arthur Sykes, Gustave Dore, Howard Pyle, A.A. Milne,  Edmund Dulac, Tasha Tudor and the list goes on. And of course, there is my omnipresent Golden Book of Fairy Tales of my early childhood (see a previous post). I came back to the Fool, but a wiser Fool– one who embraces all that I am as an artist. The Fairy Tale Tarot is all of my experiences on the journey mixed together in a big pot of artistic inspiration with a dash of deeper understanding. I have come back home, having fulfilled a lifelong dream to illustrate fairy tales and I feel, …well, emotionally prosperous. Do I intend to stop painting? NO! Have I ever stopped painting? NO. Will I keep growing as an artist? I certainly hope so!

And how about you, readers? Do you have a favorite deck that I’ve done?  Have you found that balance between embracing what you were and what you are now? Do you sometimes feel like the intrepid Fool?

*A special thanks to the members of Aeclectic Tarot, whose forum discussions helped to inspire this post (especially Hearthcricket).

Little Red Riding Hood Sketches

This past week was one that tested my will and made me look upon the arena of positive thinking with skepticism. I had someone attempt to exploit me while someone else exhibited irrational behavior that resulted in inexplicable actions. I thought to myself,“Is the world going crazy?”. In both situations, I trusted and believed. I had faith in the goodness of others. But that faith was shaken when the rug was pulled out from under my vulnerable being and I was left to question the validity of my own supposed good judgment. Intuition had let me down.

The Fool - Little Red Riding Hood B&W

I thought I was following the path, aligned with floral sanguinity when suddenly the big bad wolf emerged. And this wolf was not good. He was ravenous and potentially harmful. I did not see the indiscretions that lurked just beyond the shadows, but rather continued along my merry way assuming that all was right with the world. Once again, I’m reminded that the path does have the occasional beast, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting. But do you know what? Despite these unexpected trials, I find myself looking down the path with the same optimism that has always possessed me. Instead of allowing shadows to overwhelm and obscure my journey, I’m able to decipher the good that lay beyond the immediacy of adversity. I’m able to see that it is the monsters along the way that help us to become more creative and defiant travelers. And at the end of momentary darkness and emotional paralyses, I am able to see the light and how important it is to never relinquish the innocence that is our adventurous spirit. If we allow ourselves to lose hope when the shadows grow large upon us, we will be swallowed up by darkness. And in order to proceed down the path of growth and self-awareness, we must try to discern the light. I believe in the light, the good. And by believing in those things, I can create my own illumination as I proceed forward on this journey that is called life.

The Fool - Little Red Riding Hood Color

In Little Red Riding Hood (as the Fool card) the Wolf represents the shadow: our wild untamed nature. It is “the devouring” and has the ability to keep us in the dark, but it can also serve to help us become more aware of ourselves.

Kort & Connor, the model for Little Red. TKD test Feb. 09.

When traveling down the path of life, there is the possibility of encountering dark forces that may lurk in the shadows. The path is full of unknowns and as we wander down the trail, our adventurous spirits will help us cross into thresholds of new possibilities. But be aware of tricksters that may cross your path along the way—tricksters that may test your spirit but may also help to facilitate growth, compassion and deeper understanding.

~Lisa