Just a thought

Fulgour

10 of Pentacles by Penelope

Penelope said:
I can remember the first time I felt I really saw this card, and the shock that came seeing the stark grey banner across the top with such a glaring "X" in the centre. I felt horrible that the card seemed ruined by this flawed aspect, and then I noticed Pam's delightful PCS there on the right and it hit me: she was doing this on purpose, making a big statement about the imagery on the rest of the card below.

Patterns, patterns... the generations of life, the nature of the family, cities and towns, structure and emblem. Even the dogs know where best to turn, and then there is that iconoclastic headline ~ the force of the contrast made me feel as if Pam were saying: Do you get it, do you see what I'm saying? As if we are right there with her in her studio watching, as she sits back and sighs at her own audacity ~
to stress an important point she was willing to go against the grain
of her beautiful design.

Don't just go along with the same old routines, look up!
There's so much more...

"...where does symbolism end and an over active imagination begin."

There is a very good reason that The Pamela Colman Smith Tarot has been and surely will be the most significant and popular Tarot deck of all time. What she did for Tarot, William Shakespeare did for Drama: through a combination of her native genius and the intuitional wisdom of her natural gifts, Pam brought to life these images, and they are here to stay ~ as much a part of the Tarot as the ancient wisdom upon which it is founded. Of course there have been imitators, along with volumes of interpretations, but the best answers to be found will always come from the images on the cards themselves, Pam's generous endowment to every generation of enthusiasts since then and to come. And just like Shakespeare, there have been lots of speculations, and many criticisms, but as with all true originals: the test of time has shown that what is here has come to stay,
proudly indomitable and yet openly, freely available for all.
 

Cerulean

Nostalgia in general...

A quote:

I suppose I am attempting to put myself in the mind of creators a 100 years ago, a hopeless task and probably the silliest thing you’ve ever heard, but for unfathomable reasons important to me.


Cerulean's reply:
I do not think it is silly to look at nostalgic art. As noted in the link to the stage setting thread, Holly Volley's site shows all things Pamela and how typically lovely her illustrations were to people like myself.

I actually find her art in keeping with the illustrators such as Edmund Dulac (a friend of W.B. Yeats), whose paintings after 1908 seem wrought with Asian design, whereas some of the books that I have collected of his illustrations (either reprints or actual vintage book) have a similar feel, but more Western feel of 'Eurasian' design. He settled in England during the "golden age of illustration".

There are other artists and authors who popularized the feel of "Orientalism" or perhaps Asian flavor that I see in her cards...they are known as the Symbolists.

One that I liked, John LaFarge, did watercolors that I think
does also illustrate the romantic flavor of the time...
After marriage to the niece of Admiral Perry, John LaFarge's 1889 visit to Japan and subsequent printings of his travels with watercolors (I have a book printed in 1903) also coincided with handpainted postcards tinted in watercolor--these were photos of of Meiji Japan from tourists from the like of Felice Beato. A card deck of the time that captures this nostalgia includes the 1910 Argell Orio's tarot deck that was reprinted and available by Modiano as the "Tarot of Alan"...

Forgive me going on and on. I had recently picked up a vintage 1915 Pan Pacific Fair slim pocketbook with photos and names of San Francisco artisans and artists...so I see much period influence of East-West nostalgia in her cards.

Best wishes,

Cerulean
 

Fulgour

Re: Nostalgia in general...

Cerulean said:
(a friend of W.B. Yeats)
Recalling William Butler Yeats as oft times we may, one ought
to remember Maud Gonne (Mrs. John MacBride) 1865-1953.
As true love lives on forever, here always will be his heart...