Oracle artist Danuta Mayer

The Fairy Pack and the Wicca Pack are the only two decks I know of that she has done.

The art is so lovely. Just luminous. To me it is literally haunting, the pictures get into my mind and sort of glow there.

The plants and animals are, for the most part very realistic and detailed. The "Broomstick" card in Wicca Pack has a birch tree and Danuta Mayer has captured that exact shiny white/gold of some birch trees as well as the details of leaves and catkins. Something about the way she paints them, I'm not sure what it is, gives the plants and animals a real spiritual and symbolic presence.

The figures can be a bit stiff, especially in the Fairy Pack but I like that. It makes them seem otherworldly and like they aren't quite here but it activates the dream of them in your mind.

I wish she would do an animal deck or a plant deck. The animal cards in Wicca Pack: Bat, Raven, Owl, Spider and Hare (on the Moon card) are very effective. Dreamier and a little less realistic than the Druid Animal Oracle.

Anyway, I hope this artist does more oracles. Her work is very special. These two decks seem to be available inexpenively on line these days.

I love her art as well! I own both decks, and i adore them.

I know many people don't appreciate Mayer's art however. I've heard they don't like the way she draws people, and a friend of mine said the put weird eyebrows in the women . Go figure. People only seem to like perfect art, with perfect top models fairies and priestess and everything...pfft.

Marina said:

I love her art as well! I own both decks, and i adore them.

I know many people don't appreciate Mayer's art however. I've heard they don't like the way she draws people, and a friend of mine said the put weird eyebrows in the women . Go figure. People only seem to like perfect art, with perfect top models fairies and priestess and everything...pfft.

Click to expand...

Marina I remembered that you like owls and thought of you when I saw the Owl card in the Wicca Pack.

It seems strange that people don't like it. A couple of people I've shown the Fairy Pack to found it to be "cute" and seemed to assume (without looking at it much) that it wouldn't have much substance or be relentlessly positive and ignore the darker somber side of the fair folk. They did like the art though.

I would love to be able to paint like that.

It turns out that the Celtic Book of the Dead oracle by Caitlin Matthews is also illustrated by Danuta Mayer. The style is very different: collages that look quite surreal and dream-like. Now that I know the art is by her I see similarities in spite of the different styles.

OH! Is THAT who you are talking about - I bought "TCBOTD" JUST because I loved the art so much - I MUST V out her other dex!!

...Is there a linkie-wink, perchance, anywhere to be had?

You can see a couple of her cards here....
http://www.serpentinemoon.com/shop/...roduct_info&cPath=106_108_191&products_id=385

~Rosanne

blackroseivy said:

OH! Is THAT who you are talking about - I bought "TCBOTD" JUST because I loved the art so much - I MUST V out her other dex!!

...Is there a linkie-wink, perchance, anywhere to be had?

Click to expand...

The art style for the other two decks is very different from the CBoTD, though. It is more like regular storybook paintings, looks like gouache to me.

This site shows all the cards for the Wicca Pack. I think the publishers were not very clued in about how people make the choice to buy oracle decks because there were never more than a couple of on line pix for the Fairy Pack. It might have sold better if people could see more pictures. Last I checked both were oop but could be bought fairly cheaply from Amazon sellers.


http://strangerealms.multiply.com/photos/album/32/Wicca_Pack

and fourteen images from the Fairy Pack here
http://strangerealms.multiply.com/photos/album/5/Fairy_Pack

I had never heard of either of these decks before. I really like all three of them (The Fairy, Wicca and the celtic Book of the Dead). Too bad that they are now OOP.

The deck I like the best of the three (the Celtic Book of the Dead) seems to be the hardest to get one's hands on, or at least the most expensive at any rate. I may end up ordering the Wicca Pack, though I am trying to cut back on deck buying.

I'll keep my eyes out for this artist in the future.