Looking back I now realize that my first contact with the world of Tarot was at a very young age. My mother taught me to play a card game called "scopa" the Italian word for broom. A game where one wins points in a number of ways by "sweeping" the table clean of cards, much as one collects tricks in whist or Bridge. The cards used are what the tarot community refers to as the lesser illustrated minor Arcana of a Marseilles styled tarot deck, (as opposed to the fully illustrated minors of the Rider Waite style.
So when at a much later age I discovered the imagery of a full tarot deck, I was already familiar at least with the suites of Copas, Espadas, Bastone and Dinero. Cups, Swords, Clubs(Wands) and Coins (Disks/pentacles).
My fascination with this curious world of imagery was based on its rich visual imagery and the secrets, history and tradition it alluded to. A fascination that was enhanced rather deminished by not actualy understanding the story behind the images. Even now when arguably I have gained some greater understanding of the meaning and symbolism, my personal love for Tarot is still predominately from an artistic perspective. Regretably I have no gift to actually use the cards for reading, something that concerned me at the onset, when the idea of actually creating a tarot deck of my own was first presented. Would the whole excersise be somehow disengenious, would my lack of credentials somehow translate into whatever images I created? When Barbara Moore, who was at the time head of the tarot division of the publising company Llewellyn, first approached me with this proposal, I voiced my concerns. She indicated that she did'nt feel this would be an issue and that she considered that the style and content of my illustration would actually lend itself to such a project.
