I have been reading tarot since I was in high school. The artistry and storytelling of the cards have always drawn me in. For my honors thesis, I knew that I wanted to combine my love for tarot with my art.

The Major Arcana, the first 22 cards in the tarot deck, follow the life of the Fool, as he leaves on a new adventure. As he meets the rest of the Major Arcana, he learns important lessons about life.

For this project, I am creating ten 9” x 12” monotypes that use the imagery that is seen in the widely used Rider-Waite Smith deck. I chose to remove the figures from my cards, in order to make the viewer feel as though they are the fool moving through the deck.

The cards that I chose were hand picked to fit into two different readings:

The first follows me as I entered college. The cards focus on hard work and a new journey. They remind me to step outside of my comfort zone, meeting new people and trying new things. The cards chosen for this reading are The Fool, The Magician, Strength, The Eight of Cups, and The Hermit.

The second reading represents me, about to graduate. These cards represent the end of a cycle, hope, and my future. The cards I chose for this meeting are the Seven of Pentacles, The World, The Sun, and Death.

The color palette of these prints match, combining color as a way to depict emotion, and as a way to create a cohesive suite of prints. Each print, including the consistent color scheme, includes rays of light, to remind us that the future will always be bright.