I wanted to do an homage to the Cezanne’s painting “The Card Players 1894–1895”, one of the works that started the idea of Cubism in art history.

My work is combination of playfulness and cynicism. Although it may appear organic it is actually built on a very mathematical structure. This piece was designed and built within the diamond shape.

No heart, no game!

I wanted to use the 6 and the clubs symbol as the starting point and focal point for the artwork, for obvious reasons but I felt both are such strong graphic symbols (depending on what don’t you use for the 6) that I could really use these and work them into the piece. I knew that given the size, the piece would need to be striking and colourful but wanted to limit myself to a few colours and work around those chosen for the artwork. From there I just sketched out a load of different concepts and when I had my preferred option I got into the Mac to finish it off.

After creating almost exclusively animals for quite a while now, I wanted to do something else here. Earlier in my career I started with lots of portraits so I wanted to try this again - but with a lot more experience of course. I’ve also tried some little new things within my shading technique and I think it worked out quite well.

When I set out to make the card I jumped around in a lot of different directions. I originally was planning on making an image that related to the metasymbology of the card. At one point I was going to create a portrait of Jane Fonda as the iconic character Barbarella, because I found out Jane Fonda was born as a 10 of Hearts. In the end I ditched that idea because it felt too stiff. I agreed to loosen up and create an image that wasn’t related to metasymbology, but rather my own inclination when I thought of the words “Ten of Hearts.” Somehow I got to the image you see here. If I could sum up the image in a few words it would be: An elf is helping a tree grow anew. A tree stump felt like a strong base for a stand alone image, and the elf and plants grew around it to create the final idea.

Before i design my card, i search some informations about the signification “Queen of Spades”. Queen of Spades: A malicious, dark woman, generally a widow. An unscrupulous woman. A very dark-haired woman. A cruel woman, one who interferes. For women, a betrayal by a good friend. For men, a woman who will use them for their own gain. Widowed or divorced woman; or a woman with Air predominating in her chart. Dark haired woman, seductive or unscrupulous, treachery, betrayal, malice, widow. Treachery, betrayal, malice; a widow or evil woman and death symbol… The concept was to create a design in the spirit and style of a card to play and represent a dangerous woman symbolizing death and the dark side of some women lend anything to happen to get the one they want. Playing cards and dice represent more or less the uncertainty of the intended.

I think ’King’ has a originally strong character compared to the others, a leader. King of Clubs and my original character, Bluboo, have similar things. Bluboo wore a crown that could be related to King and Clubs represent many things for me, such as energy, happiness, flow, and creativity. I don’t know, i just like it.