Welcome to the Solstice Edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. On this occasion we were given the instruction to create a Tarot card from junk mail or “artwork that someone else has done”. Obviously, this is something of a major problem given that this blog is dedicated to my work on a Tarot deck so it would be inappropriate to use someone else’s.
Before I explain how I managed this particular stumbling block, here are the navigation links to help you find your way to my neighbours’ posts:
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I have almost all of the Majors completed now and the few that remain have had me a bit stumped. A couple of weeks ago, however, I was playing with a telephoto lens in a camera shop and had a bit of a brainwave when I snapped the nearest thing of interest, which just happened to be DH’s eyeball.
Great, this is the Meniscus Tarot and the eye is the lens through which we see the World. Bingo! And why not have a stock image of the Earth overlaid on the iris or even as the pupil of the eye, I thought. Photographing an eye proved trickier than expected. Who knew how reflective the eye can be?
Oh yes, that is a selfie of my eye (DH couldn’t open his eye enough for me to get an entire iris, which is a pity because his eyes change colour and are an endless source of fascination for me) 😀
Anyway, to cut a moderately longer than necessary story short, the camera reflection gave me another idea – a lens in a lens…and then the Earth. I wanted to have an image of the Earth reflected in one of my lenses but that proved quite tricky to capture, so here’s what I managed to knock up, somewhat at the last minute and not entirely satisfactorily. I will re-do this image at some point, if only to either have mascara or not, as opposed to just the remnants of mascara that I hadn’t quite managed to remove entirely 😀
The eye and photo of same is mine, the Earth and the lens it is reflected in are royalty-free pictures from the interweb.
I must admit that I am quite pleased with the double lens concept of seeing the world, since this Tarot deck is my eye view of it through my camera lens – Meniscus squared! I know it may not seem in keeping with the more traditional interpretations for this card, but surely the World is about culmination, of attaining cosmic consciousness, the pinnacle of achievement, and these are all a matter of perception? What do you think?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, before you proceed on to the next blog in our Hop using the links below 🙂
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“the Meniscus Tarot and the eye is the lens through which we see the World. Bingo!”
Yes… the image you were searching for is blindingly obvious once you spot it 😀 Perfect choice!
Wow! what a stunning image you have created. It would be interesting to see what your other Major Arcana are 🙂
You can see all the other cards I’ve done so far here http://meniscustarot.co.uk
Your World really captures the feeling of the World card for me. Love!
I think your image reflects the meaning of the World card beautifully! And it’s very clever as well!
What a great World card! I love the concept of using your own eye or integrating your worldview into the card.
Oh, I agree with everyone else here, this is wonderful. I think the circle within a circle effect of the eye is really in keeping with the concept of The World. I hope to see your final “satisfactory” version someday 🙂
Lovely and thought-provoking, Ania. The World as seen through one’s own eye…well, isn’t it always?
That was rather my point 🙂
Ooo great concept Ania! Beautiful card too!
Great idea. I really think the other cards are fantastic too. 🙂
Stunning! And once again I loved the backstory… looking forward to seeing the finished deck one day 🙂
After seeing this, I really noticed the blue of your eyes are when I saw you at the Conference – not sure if you had to alter the colour for the pics, but I doubt it. Goes nicely with our “blue planet” 😀
LOL I confess that I did tinker with the saturation, emphasising blues and desaturating reds, to increase the impact 😀 I had originally intended to use my DH’s eyes, which are green (most of the time), but I couldn’t get him to open his eyes enough to show the complete iris. He also seems to have a telepathic connection with the shutter, ensuring that they are almost never open at the same time 😀