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puimun β Ten of Swords
Published: 2008-05-21 02:41:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 37578; Favourites: 1662; Downloads: 975
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Description
Tarot. To see the rest of the cards, and for more information about the deck: [link]Misfortune, burdens to bear, ruin, the end of delusions, what seems to be a spiraling and uncontrolled plunge. Sacrificing self. Desolation and sorrow.
She falls. The birds do not aid her -- their wings are like blades and their feathers are knives that slice skin and cloth alike. Even their raucous cries seem hostile in the gray and indifferent night. The trees below reach out bare-branched claws to the sky; their trunks rotting from within. The End! she cries out to the sky.
Or is it just the curtain falling upon an act of melodramatic martyrdom?
Prints Available: [link]
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 8.5x14 inches
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Comments: 114
i was just reading your journal entry about this card, it's a wonderful idea and a great twist. very creative work
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Hmm... What a twist on the end of that poem. Tarot cards are interesting, and the message they give can be enlightening. Sadly, I don't know of any local shops that tell ones fortune over here XD
You truely do express what's happening in the piece that is also occuring in the poem... or is it the other way around? Hmm... Anyways, it's like a ballet in te sky with an inevitable climax.
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The image comes first before I write the descriptions on all my cards. I use the painting process itself as a kind of meditation on the meaning of the piece.
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Hmm... Good idea... It's kind of restricting to ones creativity to what has been writen beforehand.
Everyone has that something to bring themselves to their personal Nervana. Yours is a very productive one ^^
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i really enjoy the part of the picture where the bird has flown through the cloth, and had punctured a hole. it reminds me of the book: Twenty-One Balloons, in which the main character's balloon is brought down by a seagull puncturing it by flying through it. i find it interesting in relation to your interpretation of the card, because demise can not only come by a fatal mistake, but it can also come by chance.
just my thoughts on this particularly difficult card to create. (i read your journal entry about how difficult it was for you to do this card, and i understand completely!)
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God your talent is just beyond amazing. I love everything you do, it's impossible not to!
Amazing job, as always.
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Lovely concept. I enjoy looking at the red vial's movement.
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I think that the result was worth the struggle. This is a very moving piece... By the by, I picked up your book over the weekend. I adore it! Thank you for all of the effort you put into it!
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This card is beautiful. I think visually it's my favorite of your tarot series. After reading your description I get where you were going, but to me she looks like she's flying rather than falling. Still, its an awesome image. Really beautiful.
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What a beautiful rendering for this card. Barvo!
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Not even close to what I would imagine for ten of swords. Beautiful job ^^
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this is so incredible you are an inspiration to artists everywhere ^^
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this is the one i've been waiting for three years to see
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Cool, I like the concept. This could've been cool with manta rays, too.
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Wow. This one is absolutely beautiful. Some of the other cards are more complex, or have stronger composition, or more color play, but the mood and feel of this one... It's just beautiful. Sad, in a way. I really like the feel this one had, even before I read your explanation of the card. That final line in the story can change the whole way you see it, too. I like that.
The pose is absolutely gorgeous, as well. It carries a lot of emotions.
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Oh so beautiful. This is one of the best in the sword series (the most impressive for me was the one with the swan being pined down by swords), especially because of the specific depiction of the swords as a swarm of birds. I greatly enjoyed the eerie atmosphere tied to the meaning of the tarot card and especially how the moon is tilted like a macabre grin. It looks like its falling. Is it somehow tied with delusions, I hope? Although she seems in pain and is falling it looks like she is dancing ina very sorrowful and yet graceful balet. Brilliant. Sorry for the rambling, I just can't stop myself, when I see your artwork.
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if you let this avaiable to buy one day (when it's complete) I will certainly buy the whole deck!
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I just LOVE your pictures! I loved them from the beginning and still be very obsessed to them! O,O
How are you DRAWING these wonderful pictures? ItΒ΄s just amazing!
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Exquisite. The sweeping movement of the drapery and the birds are beautiful, and the composition is gorgeous.
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wow, this is amazing, loved the idea of the birds
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The picture really brings you into it! Very immersive! Love it!
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I love the way you depicted this card, I am really looking forward to your finished set. My first knowledge of your card set coming into exsistance was actually appearantly your first, though I've not known of them as long as you had begun them. You fool was the first to catch my eye and make me want this set for my own when they come out. You do the most wonderful work as well ^.^
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It's kind of funny- I looked at this one and went omg it's me! and then I realized she was falling. >.<
I don't know anything about tarot cards so I don't know if there was further relevance to the birds, but I do find it amusing if only for the realllllly subtle Hitchcock reference.... The Birds... XD
I really do find it beautiful though, despite the contrast in my personal/initial interpretation and the intended one.
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Really interesting and inspired creative license with this one, I love it. Beautiful colour combo as well.
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Beautiful work! The sense of movement and elegance is fantastic!
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This one is another very nice one. When I first looked at it via thumbnail, something about the pose of the woman was not right...so I full viewed the piece(I always look at the thumb first, to get a view of the image as a whole), and it is true...there is something unnatural and awkward about her pose. It's perfect...this really works with the theme and meaning behind the card. Having seen many dead bodies, some almost immediately after death, human and animal bodies alike often twist and bend into the most bizarre poses(once the mind vacates the body, the issue of control is gone, and the entire body relaxes). This is a beautiful card, and another piece which can stand alone as an individual work of art. Well done, once again...and sorry for the blah blah blah lol
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No need to apologize, I greatly appreciate your comments!
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Thanks...I really appreciate your work..I find it inspiring and unique
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I am a tarot enthus. (Used to do tarot reading at one point in my life) and I love all your interpretations.
I cannot wait for the deck to be print
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I love what you've done with the Ten of Swords - the birds, depicting the element of Air which is what the Swords point towards. Very thoughtful interpretation. I can't wait till your deck is done!
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I think all that effort you put into it really paid off! This may just be my favorite out of all the ones you've done so far... maybe because of the slight change of style from your usual?
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I'm not an avid follower of Tarot, but I've been following your journey through this since I became aware of it. This card, which you've had such trouble with, has turned out to be one of my favorites of the deck. I'm eager to see these when they finally go to print!
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Ooh, that's a creative way to think of swords! I like how they cluster together, as if to swarm in an attack. I also wonder, do the tattoos (?) on her arms have a meaning? (I ask because it seems as though everything in your work always does!)
A very sad and somber card...but I think it's also sad that you call the poor girl "melodramatic."
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"I think it's also sad that you call the poor girl 'melodramatic.'"
The Tarot cards often have double meanings (or triple, or...); they can be read several different ways depending on context, intuition, etc. The 10 of Swords is different from Death in that it's overkill, as opposed to an end that leads to a beginning/rebirth. All it takes is one blade to kill someone, but the 10 of Swords is *ten* blades, turning a person into a veritable pincushion. It might be legitimately hitting the bottom and despairing--or it might be playing the martyr unnecessarily, or having a victim complex.
[link] has a good in-depth explanation.
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