Upcoming Beasts & Beats: "Oh, No! Tarot!" Gallery, April 7th

Hey Guys!

This year's Beasts & Beats Gallery, themed "Oh, No! Tarot!", will feature Tarot card art by over 30+ artists on Saturday, April 7th, 2012 @ Public Works SF. More details to come! What's also neat is that all of the art in the gallery will be made into an actual Tarot deck and be sold at the gallery!

My card was the 8th card in the Major Arcana: Strength. Instead of a maiden in white clasping a lion's jaws, I wanted to draw the maiden holding up a Cerberus in one hand with ease. Like many of the artists participating, I was inspired by Alphonse Mucha and wanted to give my illustration a similar feel.

History of the Strength Card (as cited from Wikipedia):
Some frequent keywords are:

Self-control	Being solid	Patience	Compassion
Composure	Stability	Perseverance	Moderation
Kindness	Gentleness	Slowness	Softness
Serenity	Comprehension	Discipline	Inner strength

The design of this card is fairly constant across tarot decks. The key characters are that of a woman and a lion, with the woman looking calm and gentle, yet dominant over the lion. Many cards, including that of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, have the woman clasping the lion's jaws. Another feature of the RWS deck is a lemniscate (a kind of geometric form) hovering over the woman's head. Other decks have the woman sitting upon the lion, or merely with one hand upon it. Some decks feature just one of the characters; flowers are often presented on this card.