Pamela Colman Smith and Tarot Card Inspiration.

Since i am wanting to use my symbols as inspiration to reconstruct an old building on a design level, i am not going to even consider the technical aspects of creating this building. its going to be purely a design and therefore this gives me the freedom to use my imagination and take it as far as designing a building that could never be created.

How are the symbols going to help?
well the alchemist circles are really versatile in ta design sense, i can use the circle as a foundation and build a circular building. an go on to use the lines and pentagrams to create the rooms inside the possibilities are endless. the symbols could be used to create doorways, windows, rooms or just be plainly for aesthetic reasons. i can create aspects of the building using a symbol as the basic shape and build upon it. but first i need to experiment an find the perfect building i can do this to.

i love Gaudis idea of facades with a scene!
in stead of them being inspired by biblical story's like Gaudi i am going to use the original Rider Waite Tarot Deck imagery to depict a scene. i want to use aspects of these cards and incorporate my symbols and create an esoteric scene, to fit into a facade that my building will have.

i initially thought i could use tarot cards and create stain glass windows which is quite boring an predictable but then i remembered how Gaudi used his facades to depict his religions scenes an realised this is what i wanted to do ! my building is going to have an allegory of facades. 

Pamela Colman Smith

image found http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pamela%20colman%20smith?before=19

there is something about this quirky looking women that i love and find so fascinating. i love the way she dresses and the way she was is just so mystical. she reminds me of a Romany gypsy and i love there style its so bohemian.

image found http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/the-art-of-pamela-colman-smith/

my favorite painting in the Blackburn Museum/Gallery i of what looks like a young Romany gypsy girl probably in France or Spain, and she has collected the spring flowers and is sitting in a stone ruin and bunching he flowers ready to sell in the market to make some money. well that's what i see any way and it reminds me of Smith.

its not  very god photo of my favorite painting but it was hard to take a photo of it was really high up i am going to try an buy a postcard of it. 

she was born February 16, 1878, in Middlesex, England (so may commas!) to American parents. She spent most of her childhood travelling between London, New York, and Kingston, Jamaica.
During her teens, she had traveled throughout England with theatre company of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. After that she took formal art training at the Pratt institute of Brooklyn, Graduating in 1897.
Even tho she was American by birth she preferred to live in England; where she became a theatrical designer for miniature theatre and an illustrator mainly for books, pamphlets and posters.
Around about the time of 1903 she joined the order of the Golden Dawn and began to paint visions that came to her whilst listening to music.
In 1909, she undertook a series of 78 allegorical paintings described by Arthur Edward Waite as a rectified tarot pack, including full scenes of every card. the designs that were eventually published by William Rider and son, are said to exemplify the mysticism, ritual imagination, fantasy and deep emotions of the artist, (which i think is brilliant and i want people to think of my work in this way).
Despite Occasional art shows and favorable reviews by critics, the continued low sales of her work and constant rejection by commercial publishers; left he deeply disappointed, as it would have.
Smith never married, she had no known heirs except an elderly female companion who shared her flat. she died on September 18, 1951 (my birthdays on the 19th!), penniless ans obscure. Most of her work has never been found.
Pamela Colman Smith would have been forgotten if it wasn't for her 78 tarot paintings she left behind, known as the Rider Waite Tarot pack. i think she would be astonished and extremely happy to know that today after all this time her art / deck touches so many peoples hearts. this is another reason i want to incorporate her and her art work into my work because i love it and believe it should be appreciated more.

i have a Rider Waite Tarot Deck!

22 cards in the Major Arcana

the court cards (page, knight, king and queen) an minor arcana (1 to 10) are a total of  66 cards. there are 4 suits, these the wands

cups

swords

pentacles

my favorite suits are the wands and pentacles; my favorite court cards are the queen and knights.
i don't have a favorite major arcana card because i love all of the but i had to chose they would be the moon, star, sun and high priestess.

i have another deck of tarot cards but i don't like the imagery at all i only bought the deck for the book that came with it so i cold learn to read tarot. i have a couple of books on tarot cards and reading them.

so this imagery will be used as inspiration to create a scene for a facade in the building i am going to restore, simple!