decks created for other publishers

These works are decks created for other publishers.

TAROT NG DAIGDIG SA BALINTATAW

The title translates to "The World Inside The Pupil of the Eye". It's a deck I created for Adam McLean's wonderful press. He has been a huge supporter of small press and independently published tarot decks and it was a pleasure to have created this deck for him. The deck features beings from a made-up world (inside the pupil of the eye, as in the title!). Aside from being inspired by some modern paintings I saw featured in Flaunt magazine when I was in college, the landscape and some of the figures were also inspired by Persian miniature painting.

The deck is still available for sale via Adam McLean. Click on the image above or follow this link to view more details of the deck.

VANESSA TAROT

The Vanessa Tarot was inspired by a friend (Vanessa!) who is a strong and independent type of woman who also happened to have a huge doll collection, and she could talk doll lingo (like how collectors would reference stuff). I also noticed that a lot of people who are into tarot are female - from young teens to older, more experienced women. I wanted to create something fun and quirky, but at the same time has imagery which represents the meanings of the cards (and people have commented that readings done with it were quite spot-on!). The deck is something I would think of as feminine but not feminist. In fact, and when I was creating this deck, the quote "for the little girl in every grown woman (or man. lol)" kept ringing in my ears. I wanted a lighthearted approach to tarot, one you can have fun with (even laugh at the images), but something which can still be used for readings. True, you'll see dashing knights replaced by motorcycle-riding or sky-diving women, or perhaps get a lady politician for an emperor, but then I guess that's the beauty of the tarot in the contemporary world: it's a set in an arena where it can take on (and does take on) different forms, and (perhaps) gain new insights and parallelisms. that's what personally attracted me to tarot-making as well, how one pack of 78 (or so, depending on your tarot convictions. lol) cards can be expressed in so many ways yet still retain that tarot sense of mystery that has been the cause of many a tarot hoard.

I am particularly proud of this little creation of mine because while it has in many ways gone against the grain in terms of what people would normally expect from tarot, it has found a place in the tarot world and has earned the respect of a lot of tarotists.

The deck was published by US Games Systems, Inc. back in 2005 and is still in publication. You can follow this link or click on the image above. Both will lead you to US Games Systems' page on the Vanessa Tarot.