Tarot Series

maecrawford
Sep 6
3 min read

When I was 12, I attended a white elephant party — the traditional Christmas fest where attendees pick a gift from a pile of presents and then swap with each other. I walked away with a pack of tarot cards: 22 images of lovers, warriors, royals, and beasts.

I had been interested in art since I was 3 years old, doodling at the kitchen table with my dad and creating massive images in our driveway with colored chalk. The imagery in that pack of tarot cards absolutely entranced me.

I’ve always loved collage, and the cards presented collage-like blends of colors and textures, capturing exactly the right tones for fire and water, skies at sunrise and sundown, bare skin and elegant robes. I kept that pack of tarot cards for decades. Then one day I decided I was going to have a go at it — make my own — intertwining the classic images with my own artistic twists and blowing them up from card size to massive canvases.

*Hermit & Lovers, 24" x 30" Acrylic on canvas, 2022*

I began with The Fool, a canvas five feet tall featuring the naïve adventurer — traditionally a man with a stick, a bag, and a canine companion. I reimagined the Fool as a woman in an elegant 19th-century gown, wearing rose-colored glasses, carrying a fancy blue purse instead of a stick and satchel, and traveling with a fluffy white feline companion.

With each brushstroke, I thought of Gustav Klimt, the great 19th-century Austrian painter known for blending 3D figures with flat 2D clothing and scenery. That contrast draws your attention right to his characters, making them pop out of the canvas and reach towards you.

Massive paintings of classic tarot characters, seen through a 3D/2D Klimt-style lens: the idea was electric and undeniable.

Click here to watch a video of me creating The Fool

If you’re a fan of 19th-century English painter John Waterhouse and his famous portraits of elegant femininity, you might notice his artistic influence in the series. Waterhouse was a master of red — he made the color pop by fading all of the surrounding blues, greens, and oranges.

In my Tarot series, I aimed for the same effect: giving the reds a jolt by surrounding them with whites, faded grays, and light blues.

In September 2022, The Fool was featured at New York Fashion Week, positioned above the runway as five-star models wearing the latest lines of fabulous fashion walked to and fro.

Soon after, the entire series was displayed in Times Square, in the window of the famous Six Summit Gallery, where it was viewed by millions of New Yorkers and visitors from around the globe.

Three years later, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that fact. It seems almost abstract — that millions of people viewed my Tarot series. After all, I don’t know their names, nor do I know what their reactions were.

I hope my Fool, Hermit, Lovers, and Death paintings grabbed their attention, with their 3D bodies leaping out of their 2D attire. And I hope those characters connected with them the way those tarot cards connected with me decades ago.