Why illustrate the tarot?
Need a little magic in your universe?
Me too.
This is the story of how I got into tarot, and why I decided to draw all the cards. Literally.
It’s a rough time right now.
That’s why I am designing an all-new tarot deck to help guide us through it.
✨ When I was going through a very rough time several years ago, I tried a LOT of different things to re-learn how to trust myself and the signals my own body gave me.
✨ One of the tools I tried, paired with a daily meditation practice, was tarot cards.
✨ What I discovered along the way was this: tarot can lead us right back to ourselves.
✨ For me, this meant hearing what my heart was telling me all along, even if my mind was not ready to listen.
How tarot helped me heal
October 2, 2018 was a rough day. I was trying to figure out where I was headed in my life. Should I make a Really Big Change in my life and pursue art?
I had no idea, or at least, that’s what my mental chatter told me. My inner knowing told me otherwise. But how to figure out which one was my right path?
I pulled a simple three-card spread, one of my favorites: Past, Present, Future.
Past: 8 of wands (sudden change)
Present: 6 of wands (victory against the odds)
Future: King of wands (creative leadership)
My journal entry on this reading is deeply accurate. looking back on it nearly eight years later, I saw the past card as validating I had been through sudden change, as if a lightning strike interrupted my path. It had.
My journal entry from that day is telling: “Perhaps this chrysalis of pain will help me to metamorphosize into a more caring human, more empathetic, patient, kind… to myself most of all, and to others.”
Re-learning to trust myself, through tarot
I think the reason I gravitated to the tarot as my medium for divination was this: at a low point in my life, I needed a supportive way to re-learn how to trust myself.
While in pain, I had learned not to trust my body. Instead I would leave my body entirely to avoid pain. The path to getting re-acquainted with myself, my own inner knowing, was unclear.
An all-new tarot emerges
As an illustrator with progressive values and a positive vision of what is possible, I wanted to take on a challenging project that could embody my vision and values.
That's why I am designing a brand-new tarot deck, complete with 78 hand-drawn, ink-and-watercolor illustrations.
I like to paint my tarot cards three at a time. Here’s three of the major arcana cards in progress in June, 2025: The Wheel of Fortune, The Hermit, and Strength. Ink and watercolor on paper.
Never miss a post
Join my exclusive list of followers for sneak previews, stories about how I developed the concepts for each card, and updates on availability. I publish a weekly blog for subscribers with my own notes, sketches, and stories about each card as I illustrate it.
