Here’s an interesting experiment I’ve been conducting over the last few days as a means of relaxing from more serious work. I’ve discovered one of the best ways to meditate on the meaning of a card is to take a well known version in black and white and colour your own. (See photo, left.)
I’ve been working with Pamela Colman Smith’s High Priestess and I’m quite surprised by the results. My aim was to forget the colours of the original, meditate on the black and white image and fill it with the colours I would like to see in my mind’s eye. Surprisingly, the finished result isn’t that far from the original, although I’ve made her much darker and more nocturnal.
I’ve learned a lot about the Priestess herself along the way. I see her as a creature of the half light or the ‘time between times’. I also found myself trying to imagine just what was behind the richly tapestried veil she sits in front of. When you’re filling in the colours yourself the image comes to life in a very progressive and organic way and by necessity, you pay attention to details you may have previously overlooked. For me, this was noticing that you can in fact glimpse what looks like a still lake between the veil and the columns.
I’ve enjoyed doing this so much I may try another card over the coming days. I can’t share a torrent of new revelations concerning the High Priestess but I can say that I’ve connected with her on a somehow more personal level. To give her colour very much quantifies what she means to me and how she inhabits her own part of my inner space.
Chris.
Chris Butler. Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot 2.0. Published by Lo Scarabeo. 2010.
www.butlerart.co.uk
www.quantumtarot.co.uk
