Well, getting the card Two of Hearts and drawing the graphics for it on Valentine’s day had a sweet synchronicity that of course had to inspire the theme and style. The two hearts on the card resembles red roses/rose pedals and it looks as if you can look into the chambers of the hearts. The hearts look soft, fluid, organic. All very romantic of course.

I got 3 ♦ Diamonds, so I try to combine the 3 hand gesture with 3 diamonds. Honestly at first I was thinking just using the diamonds to make a 3, then I felt it was too lazy. Then I was trying to play around with the hand gesture with a diamond in the middle, it still felt flat. I added a diamond behind the hand to pop it better then I SAW ANOTHER DIAMOND! So I started to redraw everything and to make sure it all lines up beautifully. (I’m a control freak...)

Well, I collect tarot decks, so the idea of my card came from the tarot. The 6 of spades is a card to represent transition, changings, knowing a new world, ideas, feelings and elsewhere. Basically I reinterpreted this ideas.

The idea came from a biblical Word, where it explain how Jesus will come for the second time, he will show on a White horse with a White and shinny dress, with a sword in the hand and a Crown in the head. It speaks that the one that was called by love will come this time on a horse from the heaven with a White dress, a sword and a Crown to make justice, so we make a representation with our own style to describe this prophetic Word. With a research, we realize that the number seven it’s the number of perfection and the sword is associated to the divine Word.

My brief is to develop art piece from “Nine Spade”. What come in my mind the first thing is “Cat”. In Thailand, we believe that cat is one of the animal that has the longest life some says cat has nine life. Therefore, this is what inspired me to create this art. I also use illusion technique to create a picture of cat in two character so the audience could look at my work from both side.

To be honest, designing a ’high’ card is a bit of a challenge to me. I wanted to design a reversible card and the illustration can stand on its own without looking at the given pictograms showing what card it is. Nature has always been my favourite subject. Natural elements such as animals and plants are used to incorporate 10 bits of diamonds with two of them facing each other at the centre forming an “X” symbol which means 10. The resulting piece is a reversible design with two sides that are totally different from each other.

Perched high on the Dublin mountains lies The Hellfire Club, an 18th century hunting lodge with an infamous history of outrageous behaviour and depravity. Accounts of the club’s meetings claim that members drank “scaltheen”, a mixture of whiskey and hot butter, and that they left a chair vacant at each gathering for the Devil. One of these accounts tells of a stranger who arrived at the club on a stormy night. Invited in, he joined the members in a card game. As one player dropped his card on the floor he bent under the table to retrieve it and noticed that the stranger had a cloven hoof. At this point the visitor disappeared in a ball of flames ;)

My card was the queen of clubs. I just wanted to draw a woman who would be like a timeless queen in a forgotten city.