When my friend Elizabeth Owen asked me to participate in a Tarot card exchange, I said "yes" even though I truly don't know that much about Tarot. However, I like to occasionally do things that frighten me. The cards needed to be based on a work of Edgar Allan Poe. Well, when I got the Page of Wands panic is exactly what I did for days. This was not going to be easy. I read Poe poetry for days and my panic subsided a little when I came across his poem "Dreams" which seemed to fit.
Dreams
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak`ning, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho` that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
`Twere better than the dull reality
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth !
But should it be - that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood - should it thus be given,
`Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell`d, when the sun was bright
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
And left unheedingly my very heart
In climes of mine imagining - apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more could I have seen?
`Twas once & only once & the wild hour
From my rememberance shall not pass - some power
Or spell had bound me - `twas the chilly wind
Came o`er me in the night & left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly - or the stars - howe`er it was
That dream was as that night wind - let it pass.
I have been happy - tho` but in a dream
I have been happy - & I love the theme -
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life -
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise & Love - & all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
My first attempt failed. I tried to not let it get me down and now that the second card is finished, I'm actually quite happy the first attempt failed. This is done with a collage technique that uses polymer medium and heat. I'm new to it and really like it. I drew the sun and colored it in with Prisma color pencils and rubber stamped the stars and "Page of Wands." Since the Page is young, I found a photo of Poe as a youth. The checkerboard is from an envelope. I do love them. Anyway, I stretched, overcame fear and failure and lived to tell another tale. Now I can only hope the other artists are happy. I am.
I love the title of your page! The tarot card turned out great. It is wonderful that you used several different materials and mediums to create it.
ReplyDeleteI've had the opportunity to learn a lot about Tarot recently. I don't think they are scary anymore. They are really just symbols that speak to our unconscious and another tool for self-discovery. I think yours turned out great. Good for you that you worked through the fear!
ReplyDeleteSusie and Sherrie, thanks for the kind words. They are appreciated!
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