Tarot card #4

"Hello, beautiful. Come downstairs and see my lovely etchings/aquarium/antiques."He does kinda look like a smooth criminal. The title came to me before the image -- I was going to paint a silhouette, but stumbled across him as I was going through my image stash.
Ever meet someone who seems to be wholly incapable of understanding your point of view, even if the person can summarize it just fine? A person who honestly thinks his or her intentions outweigh their destructive words/actions? Oh, even better -- the person who insults you as they apologize? "Sorry if you were offended."

A few of them are sociopaths, some are borderline personalities. (I believe the technical term for most of them is, as The Husband once put it, "schmuck!")

That's the Quicksilver Man. The one who slips through your fingers as you try to pin down what this person's deal is.

Yes, his butt is facing the wrong way. The image was originally from a vintage poster advertising a contortionist. The rest is tissue paper printed with the basement of a large building, and an alligator-textured paper. The gator paper isn't usually shiny, but just before I sealed it with gel medium I realized, "hellooo! Reptile! Coat it with gloss gel medium!" Brilliant sometimes, I am.

I have the next two sketched out, but it may take a while before I get them done. You know how it is.

Tarot card #3

Here's where I relocated the focal image that used to be on The Unclean tarot card.
Funny how I can barely understand the lyrics to the song that inspired the card's title. Not the Kelly Clarkson song or the Jon McLaughlin song. The one by 311, from 1997. (I am so out of the loop I didn't know there were two other songs with the same title. I also didn't know the 311 version was a track in Guitar Hero World Tour.)

This card is also my entry in Michelle Ward's latest Street Team Crusade.With a lot of help from The Husband, I created this image in Photoshop. Then I used it on a calling card I brought to Artfest last year.
I would've liked to blend the image into this newer piece a bit more, but I'm just trying to get the ideas out first, before I lose momentum to make the others.
Again with the biohazard symbol! Here it's transferred to watercolor paper. The gray area is a gel medium transfer of a child's eyes.
This is also a "knock-off" of previous work. I used her image on a papier mache house sent to me as part of the Art & Soul Portland 2007 welcome packet.
There are other children in the original picture, presumably her brothers and sisters. But I like her expression -- or lack thereof -- best. She looks sullen, self-possessed, accusing and vulnerable all at once. I wonder what happened to her as an adult.

Tarot card #2

Tarot card #2 started out like this, but I had to scrap it. I realized I meant to put the focal image on a different card. I would've liked to remove the mesh also and keep the rest of the card, but it was only going to get ripped up beyond repair.

I kept the title, though, and repeated the biohazard symbol. I tried on "The Exile" and a couple others, but this one stuck. I've been fascinated by the biohazard symbol ever since I read The Snow Queen years ago.
I meant this card to be similar to the Death card in traditional decks, in that it doesn't really mean what it looks like at first glance. Pulling the Death card doesn't mean you're going to die at the end of your reading; it refers to change. I'm not going to get into what this means specifically for me. But I just wanted to head off any awkward inquiries.

Tarot card #1

I have one and a half tarot cards done. Behold the first one.
My astrological sign is the crab, and it seems to fit me rather well. I prefer to live somewhere near water. I'm very loyal, but more selective about placing my loyalty than I used to be. So when I let go, I'm done. (Just ask the bridesmaid I "fired.") I tend to hold onto stuff: old birthday cards, pictures, memories. Unfortunately, it's harder to let go of some memories than I'd like.
Finally, a use for a bread clip! (You know, the thingamajigs that hold plastic bread bags closed.) I've been collecting them, without really being sure what they'd be good for. I made the claw out of one that had a "best by" date stamp.

I finished a second tarot card, then decided it needed reworking. More on that when it's finished.

Tarot cards

I'm reading through (slowly, and out of sequence) LK Ludwig's True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling. The section on self-portraiture includes a bit on personal imagery, with a suggestion to make your own tarot cards. So I'm making tarot ATCs. I would've liked to go a little bigger, but I need to catch up with the ideas I have.
Starting with tarot card wrapping paper (I have got to get rid of this! It's been in my stash forever) that I've painted over with a grid of Paynes Gray.
You might recognize this paper from before. (I've also noticed they look like lotería cards in sheet form.) This time I think it'll mostly be covered with the cards. Either I'll glue them down, or put them in pockets with descriptions behind each pocket... not sure yet. But they will definitely have names, like the "Queen of Cups" in a regular tarot deck. I have nine of them ready to go.

The Big Chop

First thoughts:
I look like Hawk from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."

Source: TVacres.com

I look like Miss Jeannette.

Source: "True Blood" wiki

I look like my mother.

Maybe if I wear a lot of jewelry I'll look more like a runway model...

Most black women have Issues around their hair. Is it too curly (um, too nappy)? Not curly enough? How can I get it to grow longer? How much can I do to it before it falls out in clumps? What kind of activities can I engage in without sweating so much that it goes back (to its natural curl pattern)? None?

So you see why I never thought I'd be the type of person to say to my hairdresser, "Oh, just cut it all off." Oh no. It takes many months for it to grow even a couple of inches.

Eventually, I'd like to have a twist out hairstyle, like my hairstylist used to wear.

Source: goodhairsalon.com

Until then.