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TWPT:
Would you please tell us a little bit
about yourself ?
CM: I was born in Italy,
brought up from a very early age in the UK, and in my late twenties I
moved to South America. From there onto the US where I have been based since
1992. I am a professional graphic designer with my own company here in Miami, Florida,
offering a full range of marketing related services to a number of
multinational corporate clients. Quite removed from the worlds I deal with in
my own personal illustration work.
TWPT:
How does a "Photoshop Guru" get into
designing a Tarot Deck?
CM: My experience with digital media is a obvious consequence of
the corporate design work I do. Applying the same tools to the style of my
personal illustration work was a logical evolution but one that evolved over
many years as the learning curve is steep, and involves technical as well as
artistic input.
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What started as a personal pastime when time in between
client obligations and deadlines allowed, has over recent years enjoyed some
recognition both from my peers in the form of various Adobe Photoshop Guru and
other awards, design magazines etc, but also with the general public via
my web site and sale of fine art prints. I occasionally teach or give lectures on
digital imagery and illustration at the Art Institute. As if I wasn't busy
enough, my wife talked me into submitting my work for various Art festivals in South Florida where I will now be participating.
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TWPT:
Many times the author of the book is also the person
designing the symbolism and layout for the cards, and the artist is just the
brush. While the actual artistic style is the artists own, the content is
usually the symbolism of the author. Who designed the elements of
this deck and how does Barbara Moore, the author of the book, fit into
this collaboration?
CM: In this case its the reverse. The images, symbolism etc are mine, the text of
the companion book by Barbara Moore was prepared to compliment the images
and artist notes I provided.
I see many elements of the standard Tarot
Deck in your cards but you also have a distinct unique approach to
the Tarot. Where did you draw your influences from?
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The style and theme of my work has always included a certain
fantasy, mystical Astrological content. But I was never and indeed still do not
consider myself particularly knowledgeable in those subjects, but for some
reason which I could never fathom I was always intrigued by the symbolism and
mystery that they represented.
When Llewellyn asked if I'd be interested in creating a
tarot deck, my first reaction was -- why I hadn't thought of it myself. Indeed
I even had some decks which I had mounted on a board and hanging on my wall.
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However I was also concerned that it is one
thing to produce an illustration that only needed to make sense to me, it
is another to produce 78 images that needed to comply with certain established
meanings and symbology. I made sure that Llewellyn was fully aware that I was a
novice, they felt comfortable despite that, so I started to put pen to paper
(or in my case digital pen and mouse to monitor).
TWPT: What have you encountered in putting together this deck? Any
serendipity moments or moments of difficulty in putting together a tarot deck?
CM: There was little purpose taking on the volume of work that a
tarot deck represents simply to churn out yet another Rider-Waite clone.
That's why I'm wary of the ultra traditionalists of the tarot community who are
unreceptive to any deviation from the established imagery. I
mean, if one took that approach to the extreme then the artist
of any new deck is relegated to being a glorified photocopying machine.
Nevertheless, realizing that keeping everyone happy was not
going to be possible anyway, I decided to use my lack of familiarity with
the subject to my advantage . I read multiple descriptions of the
cards from various sources, but deliberately avoided looking at many images, so
that I'd be as uninfluenced as possible by the interpretations of the other
artists. Of course there in lies the potential danger of veering off to far and
alienating too many people.
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So after I had prepared a number of basic cards, I met
with the local Wiccan High Priestess of Isis Rising who had been
recommended by a mutual friend, and presented my ideas to her. I was encouraged
by her positive response and felt more confident that the look and
feel I was using was working and so I continued to apply it to
the remaining cards.
Indeed, somewhat surprisingly under the circumstances, Llewellyn only requested
two changes. One of which was because they were initially uncomfortable about
the lack of a male figure on the ten of cups. This was a good example in fact
of my personal vision based on what I had read and pictured in my
mind.
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My take on it was that the male figure is there in a
sense, I saw myself as the male figure, returning home from my labours and
observing in the third person the domestic scene with the positive
connotations it projects. Llewellyn accepted the interpretation.
TWPT:
Could you discuss how you designed this deck and worked it
through the computer medium?
CM: Technically my illustrations and the Gilded were produced
digitally. I "paint" using a digital pen and tablet. I only use
Photoshop. Unlike most computer "generated" decks, I
didn't use special third party filters or scanned photographs.
Everything is created from scratch, with the exception in the Gilded where a
few photographic faces of myself, family members and friend who posed for some
cards were incorporated.
TWPT:
Your website is awesome. I loved exploring the site,
the artwork, and it is well laid out and easy to navigate. Is this your
design also?
CM: I designed my web site to serve as a virtual gallery and
shop window to offer fine art prints of my work. While it's probably a
little frustrating for anyone with slower Internet access to view, I felt
it was important and appropriate to have the contents somewhat graphic heavy,
and to try and show as much detail as possible. I'm pleased to say that its
attracting a growing number of visitors, and I'm receiving almost eight hundred
a day.
TWPT:
Tell us about the "Special Edition" decks you have
available on your website.
CM: The special edition versions of the Gilded Tarot have been
an interesting exercise. It started as a couple of hand made decks I'd
produced for myself . I simply didn't have the patience to wait for
the published version to be released so I could actually have something
tangible in my hands. I then offered them to the
public, but did not seriously expect anyone to buy them. It
gave me something to talk about and discuss in various tarot related
forums, while once again waiting for the standard deck to published.
Unfortunately the fact that they were printed one deck at a
time front and back, hand glued, trimmed, plus additional satin laminate etc.
etc.; it was extremely time consuming. Along with the cost of special
paper inks etc, I was obliged to charge a high price for them, which to be
honest still didn't make business sense considering the effort involved. and is
certainly not an option I will repeat for future projects. But certainly as a
marketing exercise to promote interest in the published deck that followed, it
was worth it.
TWPT:
What have you in store for us in the future? Can we
expect any more projects like the Gilded Tarot Deck?
CM: My next project is called the Tarot of Dreams, and I'm
particularly excited about it. While I'm satisfied with the Gilded, to use the
following analogy: its like the The Hobbit, whereas the new deck will be my
Lord of the Rings. I hope that it will provide the tarot community with some
significant new approaches.
Once again it will consist of a 78 card deck, with fully
illustrated minors. But the illustration style will be far more detailed that
the Gilded, and will be deeper in esoteric symbology. This is due to my own
learning curve, along with the collaboration of Lee Bursten, who I have
contracted to join me and will be writing the text for the companion material
as well as providing insight and recommendations. He has also developed a Tree
of Life chart which is incorporated in the imagery of the cards.
In addition to the deck itself, there will be a CD containing an easy friendly
interface that will allow the users to navigate to the various sections. This
will of course include a full intro and explanation of the cards, each of which
can be viewed either in order or randomly. The majors will also be animated, so
that there will be a number of possible variations from one time to the next
for the image of each Major, which I hope will provide an almost infinite base
of combinations for both reading and personal meditation.
To appease those who prefer to work with a Marsaille styled deck, the CD will
also offer the option of viewing less illustrated minors, thus essentially
there will be 118 cards. There will also be an optional narrated voice over and
background music, plus free themed monitor desktop wallpapers, screen savers
and letterheads. Finally there will be an option to print out a hard copy
version of the text for those who prefer to read in a more tradition book form.
So all in all I hope this will offer something for everyone, and put a fresh
face on the tarot genre.
As I mentioned earlier, I won't be producing a hand made limited edition
version of this deck, but I will be offering all those who have requested to be
included on my mailing Tarot of Dreams mailing list, some kind of
extra thank you such as signed numbered versions.
TWPT:
We would like to thank Mr. Marchetti for his insightful
answers to our questions, and wish him much success on both of his projects.
Please take the time to visit his website below and view some of the brilliant
imagery he has produced. It is well worth the trip to his website.
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