2012. 7″ x 15″
LIFE magazine collage
I transformed my collection of LIFE magazines from the 1960s, into a new collection of Tarot cards via collage. Of the 82 cards in Tarot, I created the first 22 (the Major Arcana), including the Roman numeral and Hebrew letter to traditionally designate its rank. These first 22 cards are the most important in Tarot, as they define the major aspects of life (the rest of the deck, the Minor Arcana, define smaller aspects in life, following the same methodology of playing cards: Ace, King, 10, 2, Diamond, Spade).
I created the imagery for the cards based upon the function of the card, and by what I can scavenge from the LIFE magazines. The advertisements and general feel of 1960s pop consumerism from LIFE lead to the cards being somewhat advertisement-like themselves. Hence, I attempted to think in the mindset of the 60s to create imagery that can somewhat historicize the 60s, using pop culture as the primary source.
The entire collage process relied on opportunity of chance – one of the fundamental principles when shuffling a deck of tarot cards to read a fortune. The combination of chance and LIFE defines Tarot – it was meant to be.
