Tag Archives: painting

Tarot and Art Horoscope for Week of July 28, 2019

Remedios Varo

Happy Birthday month Leo!

Many artists use their art to investigate who they are.  This week’s artist is surrealist Remedios Varo (1908-1963).  Varo used her art, intellect, and curiosity to investigate and understand her dichotomous upbringing, diverse and war-weary history, nonconformist ideas of gender and spirituality, and inner landscapes of her mind.  In her youth, her father, an engineer, spurred her to read sciences and fantasy books and learn mechanical drawing.  Where her Mother a devout Catholic sent her to convent school.  This possible opposing theme of science versus spirituality becomes her most prominent motif in her art.

You can see in her art how she tried to conjoin the conflicting topics of occult/science, human/machine, and conscious/subconscious, to name a few. Her paintings gave Varo a safe place to revolt from the restrictions of her Mother’s Catholicism, and the male dominated Surrealist movement.  Remedios elevated the woman figure from object to subject.  The subjects of her paintings became version of herself evolving into gender-neutral characters in surrealistic dreamscapes.  Varo’s landscapes gave the parts of her – artist, mystic, scientist and spiritual being – a place to express and explore her and ultimately the viewer’s multidimensional character.  That is the amazing thing that art aids us in, our investigation of the age-old question:  Who am I.

P.S.  Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.  Leo this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.

 

Aries

Remedios VaroSeven of Pentacles – Another great week to put time and effort into how you make your money.  The Seven of Pentacles is the work horse card.  Spend this week investing ways that will bring you material wealth.  The only challenge with this card is having patience. This week is great for planting ideas/time/space; however, you will have to wait till late fall to see its bounty.

 

Taurus

Remedios VaroQueen of Swords – The Queen of Swords can play out two ways this week.  First, because you are a true friend and have integrity, you might feel called to protect someone or idea.  Second, your intellect is honed to see the smallest cracks in any project or process.  However, the common challenge is when defending or helping you tend to be a bit too pointy in your communications and/or parlays.  So, the question to work on is – how can you say and/or do your truth without coming off as being judgmental?

 

Gemini

Remedios VaroEight of Cups – The Eight of Cups is the card of letting go.  Whether it is emotional or physical baggage this is a great week to prioritize and simplify.  This card is a mini-turning point in your life.  So, look around your physical and internal landscapes and get rid of what no longer fits the you of NOW.

 

Cancer

Remedios VaroNine of Cups – The Nine of Cups continues the theme of last week’s Sun card. The Sun closed out your birth month with its energy of growth and increasing your person shine.  This card is about enjoying life’s abundance and being content with what is in the now.  Take this week to partake and be grateful for all that you have.

 

Leo

Remedios VaroKing of Cups– Last week the Hierophant declared a theme for 2019-2020 – organization and structure.  This week the King of Cups ask you to put responsibility aside and celebrate your birth. This King rules your emotional well-being, and he wants you to party, fall deeply in love, fill your cups and enjoy life overall.  The only caution with this Bacchian vibe is be careful of overindulgence.

 

Virgo

Remedios VaroNine of Pentacles – The Nine of Pentacles advice, this is a good week to get things accomplished and easier if you spend your productive time alone.  This is not calling for you to be totally isolated but when or if you decide to invite others in choice wisely.   Outsiders can be a distraction to your efficiency.

 

Libra

Remedios VaroKing of Pentacles – Last week, The Death card declared it was great time to start the ball rolling to create change in places that have bottom out, dead-ended or ran out of oomph.  The goal was and is to weed out the dead growth so new things can grow in its stead.   This week the King of Pentacles gives you a bit more control on the process and outcome than last week.  Where last week was more go with the flow, this week is more hands on.  This card brings with it the momentum to finish up or clean out projects that have spilled over from last week.  The challenge is still not to start anything new but to finish up or build upon the old.

 

Scorpio

Remedios VaroSeven of Cups – The Seven of Cups is the card of imagination and wishes.  This is a great week to daydream and fantasy about what would satisfy your heart ie: make you content with love and relationships.  There is a paradoxically challenge with this card and week.  One side is challenging you that you are not dreaming or living big enough and the other is that your dreams play out in your life as more fantasy then fiction.  The key dream bigger with love while being also realistic of human nature.

 

Sagittarius

Remedios VaroPage of Swords – When the Page of Swords shows up it means that you do not have all the information you need to move forward or make decisions this week.  Take this time to put on your Sherlock hat and find out what is going on behind the scenes.  The challenge is posing the right questions and listening to the answers with an open mind.

 

Capricorn

Remedios VaroKnight of Cups – The Knight of Cups is the card of romance and people/places or things that stir your heart.  This week take time to do all things that fill your emotion well.  The only challenge with this card is you may wear your heart on your sleeve.  This is not always a comfortable position for Capricorn’s hearts to be, but it is important to share some vulnerability and insight into what stirs you with those that you are close to.  Intimacy is vital for the human experience.

 

Aquarius

Remedios Varo*Moon – The Moon realms the realm of things that are hidden. Everything is not what it seems this week, and there is information that you need to process.  This week is dealt with best when you open your mind to your intuition to find your path through the fog.  This is a great week to daydream or follow your wimsy instead of cold hard facts and logic.  And by doing so, you unlock some subconscious info that you will need soon.  The challenge is when you are having to deal with the outer world.  Be aware this week you can feel vulnerable and/or moody when pushed to make decisions in this misty moonlight.  If you must move forward, follow your instinct instead of your logic.

 

Pisces

Remedios VaroSeven of Wands – The Seven of Wands is the card of challenges.  This card foretells that this week can have some struggles, but they are important for you furthering your opportunities.  The challenge is not to get discourage these trials are short lived and easily solved.  Motto: Keep on Keeping on.

 

May light be on you, around you, and within you,

Nina

 

Tarot-cast for the Week of March 31, 2019

April is the month of change and a reminder of the amazing marble we live on.  It is Spring in the northern hemisphere and Fall in the southern.  The cycles of life are in Mother Earth’s headlines. Flowers are budding or plants and animals are getting ready for winter, and migration is happening all over the planet.  No wonder Earth Day is celebrated in April.  In honor of Mother Earth and her inhabitants I am picking artists that have a flora or fauna themes all month.

This week’s artist is Lisa Ericson.  Her detailed paintings are the perfect combination of fact, fantasy, and myths. For instance, the pelican paintings could be related to the evolutionary theorem of Island hopping – animal population arriving by flotsam or flight.  Her Rodentia flutterbys fulfill the childhood fantasy that all animals should have butterfly wings; it makes any animal cuter.   Her paintings of tortoises carrying small ecosystems evokes the myths of some indigenous tribes of the Americas and the Hindu cosmology of the World Turtle, who holds up the world.

Overall, her paintings convey the frailty of the web of interspecies dependence. What truly caught my eye with this artist’s work is the eyes of her subjects.  They look at the viewer with a sense of winsome and wisdom. Reminding us that we are interconnected to them; our stewardship of Earth and companionship with them can be an omen of good or ill for all.

P.S.  Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.

 

Aries

Lisa Ericson*Moon – The Moon card comes to light when you need to investigate the darker parts of your subconscious – lighting a fear.  This anxiety or fear can be grounded in truth, and the Moon’s reflective light reveals the fact or fantasy of it.  This can look as simple as if you are walking down the street and get a hint that someone is following you, don’t blow it off.  Walk with courage to a well lite area with people, say Hi to someone and then turn around.   Or a more complex situation of confronting an anxiety and dissecting it to see if it is based in reality.   In both scenario your intuition and feelings are something to listen to but not let them overwhelm you.

 

Taurus

Lisa EricsonEight of Cups – The Eight of Cups is the spring-cleaning card.  This card can literally mean you need to do some spring cleaning in your home or metaphorically any area of your life.  Open the windows air, out your linens, and vacuum the dust bunnies from under your bed.  There is a witchy ritual where you sweep out your front door sweep out the bad vibes.  If you don’t have a broom to do that then at least clean out the bag/canister in your vacuum cleaner.

 

Gemini

Lisa EricsonFive of Wands – Second five in a row, so let’s dive into the meaning of five.  Fives are the cards of chaos where the chaos brings out things that are hidden or things that can sweep us away.  Last week the chaos had you uncovering the positive and negatives in your life and asking you to choose the positive perspective.  This week the Five of Wands looks at the chaotic energy you allow in from others.  You have a choice whether to play in the chaos or simple turn around and walk away.  The challenge with either choice is not getting swept up into or trigger by the drama of others.

 

Cancer

Lisa EricsonTen of Cups – The Ten of Cups is the rainbow card.  It advises us to celebrate even after a storm.  The challenge is seeing that happiness is not the absence of pain.  Pain can co-exist with happiness without canceling it out.

 

Leo

Lisa EricsonPage of Cups – Time to pull out your rose-colored glasses.  The Page of Cups advises you that this week no matter what happens to find the silver lining and the rainbow.  You need an injection of naivety, play and an innocent perspective, even though that grumpy lion-ic side wants to roar.  This week it’s all about your inner cub.

 

Virgo

Lisa Ericson*Hierophant – This is card that Virgo feels comfortable in as long as you don’t get to self-critical.  The Hierophant advise you to work on structures and efficiency this week.  This can look as simple as oiling the door hinge that squeaks. Or as complex as fixing your money or schedule so that you are no longer broke at the end of the month or too tired at the end of the week.

 

Libra

Lisa EricsonThree of Wands – The Three of Wands advise you to do some planning before diving into projects this week.  The best use of this time is focusing on how to make the work run smoothly.  Think of yourself as the guy on the tarmac that guides the plane into the gate.  The challenge is having foresight and peripheral vision for things to line up.

 

Scorpio

Lisa EricsonTwo of Pentacles – Juggling is the name of the game this week with the Two of Pentacles.  The challenge with this card is getting too brash.  Make sure you start out simple and have two items/things/people on your plate and once you do that well then you can add another “ball” to the mix.  This week a misstep can be a mishap.

 

Sagittarius

Lisa EricsonSeven of Coins – The Seven of Coins is the worker bee card.  This week’s energy is best used working your butt off.  All the things you do and partake in this week fertilize and grow your productivity for the coming summer months.  This is a week to start projects/plant seeds, weed projects in progress, exchange seeds, direct people in helping to tend the garden, water relationships, etc…  Use this gardening metaphor to the fullest so you can harvest in the Fall.

 

Capricorn

Lisa EricsonQueen of Swords – Last week the Hierophant and Eight of Wands had some spiritual messages having you create a deeper meaning and structure to your life.  Lucky for you the Queen of Swords is helping you with another week of this esoteric challenge.  She is the card of critical thinking.  So, take this week to do some Socratic questioning on the concepts of meaning itself to help complete the blueprint of the structures that you need.

 

Aquarius

Lisa EricsonSix of Swords – Last week, the Justice card said all things are just and fair, but it may take a while to see it play out.  Justice challenged you to see the truth in situations and yourself without the lens of emotion. Reminding you that you can’t control every aspect of this life and by letting go of some of the control you let Justice takes its course justly.  This concept still rings true this week.  The only added advice that the Six of Swords is giving is to “let go” you need to simplify your life.  Also, this card reminds you if you are stuck in how to do that, water either its rhythm or water itself can help you realize where and what to pare down.

 

Pisces

Lisa EricsonEight of Coins –The Eight of Coins is the card of mastery.  You challenge is to use this energy to up your game at how you make money.  Whether that is learning a new skill, honing an old skill, networking, refreshing your website/LinkedIn page, etc.., it is all business this week.

 

May light be on you, around you, and within you,

Nina

 

Tarot-cast for Week of March 10, 2019

Laura Knight was a ceiling smashing artist at the beginning of the 1900’s.  She became the first woman elected to a full membership of the Royal Academy in 1936 and the first to get her own retrospective exhibition there though it took 30 more years to obtain that.  One of her first controversially pieces, above, was Self portrait with a nude (see Aries) .  This portrait shows herself painting a nude. This was to retaliate the rule that women were only allowed to paint nude forms by casts or copying existing drawings.   The painting composition is not only the finest but also intriguing.

She continued her rebellious nature by the choice of her subjects of portraits.  Many of her portrait studies were from marginalized people of the time doing either the highly unusual or the mundane, like having a woman with cropped hair holding a gun, gypsies, people of color, circus people, or more famously woman working in military.   Why is it still shocking seeing these portrays today – is it because these population are still marginalized and stereotyped so when we see them, we are still “amazed?”

P.S.  Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.

Aries

Four of Cups – The Four of Cups, another week where your emotions take the forefront.  This week the Four of Cups advises taking time pondering yourself, and here is the challenge also pondering your place in the world.  You hold many of the keys this week, but one is beyond your everyday personal space.  So, take a moment not only to look in but also to look out.

Taurus

Laura KnightSix of Coins – The Six of Coins is the mini karma card.  Be aware that especially this week that your interactions with others and your environment will ripple out and come back to you three-fold.  So, the nicer and more caring you are for the environment and people around you, the more positive the world will be towards you.  The challenge -this of course also works with negative energy.

Gemini

Laura Knight

Queen of Cups – Kindness and compassion is the key to this card.  Not only to those around you but also to yourself.  The challenge with this card is you can’t do either with goals or expectations.  This card is just a challenge to exercise your heart muscle.

Cancer

Laura KnightEight of Coins – This is your second eight in a row so let’s just check into the meaning of eights.  Eights are the cards that challenge improving and releasing.  Last week the cups ask you to release; this week the Coins ask you to improve.  The Eight of Coins advises honing the skill of getting into the zone, whether that is at work or play – trying for mastery is the key.  The challenge perfection is unobtainable.

Leo

Laura Knight

Page of Coins – The Page of Coins advises that you need to keep an open mind this week.  Learning is the key that will help you with work.  The challenge – open mind, open ears, open heart.

Virgo

Laura Knight

Knight of Cups – Oh this one is challenging for you all.  The Knight of Cups is inspiring you all to be vulnerable this week. What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.  Brene Brown

Libra

Laura KnightAce of Swords –It is a great week to be the philosopher and ponder on the bigger questions in life.  Your challenge is for your mind to think in ways it hasn’t thought before.  Also, if you have been holding off on a decision, this is the time to make it.

Scorpio

Laura Knight*Empress – The Empress is the card of growth and mothering.  This card wants for you all to reconnect with the person that was the most motherly to you – even in spirit if they no longer reside on this plane.  The challenge, however, is finding and cultivating those “motherly” qualities in yourself. Not only for providing support and compassion for others but also giving you an internal source to dip into when you need it.

Sagittarius

Laura Knight

Queen of Wands – The Queen of Wands advises that nature and magic are key to you this week.  This card challenges you to conjure up some magic to ignite your imagination.  Whether that is a walk in the woods to find fairies, pondering a starry night for UFOS, or putting socks under your bed for monsters.   The more magical your thinking the freer your mind becomes from the mundane.

Capricorn

Laura KnightThree of Swords – The Three of Swords ask you to be honest with your emotional thinking.  This card asks you to let go of some thought patterns that are not working.  The challenge is sitting with that emptiness – not fill it back up with another thought or emotion- so your mind and heart can heal.

Aquarius

Laura Knight*Tower – The Tower is the card of destruction from an outside force that make you start anew.  This card comes up when something needs to be fixed that you have been putting off.  The best way to head off a possible catastrophe is to fix the problem.  This can be as simple as fixing that door handle that keeps falling off, scheduling in some “me time” so you don’t burn out, or as complex as have that hard talk with a love one before frustration burns down the house.

Pisces

Laura KnightNine of Swords – The Nine of Swords is the card of excess thinking and worry.  The challenge with this card is to figure out which worries you can fix and put them on a to-do list (out of your head-space) and the rest to put on a list and flush them (you can literally flush then if you put them on TP).  Another exercise is when a worry comes up replace it with a song or image that makes you smile or even better laugh.  The point being making more room for quiet contemplation instead of yammering worries.

May light be on you, around you, and within you,

Nina

Tarotcast for the Week of September 16, 2018

Fruit Dennis Wojtkiewicz

Categorizing fruits or vegetables can be a contentious debate among chefs, botanists and gardeners.  Botanically a fruit “is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems.”  With this definition, squash and tomatoes hang with peaches in the fruit realm and beets, kale, and cauliflower grow with the vegetables.

However, this debate was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1893, Nix. v. Hedden.   The court ruled unanimously that an imported tomato should be taxed as a vegetable, rather than as a (less taxed) fruit. The court recognized that a tomato is a botanical fruit, but sided with the “ordinary” definitions of fruit and vegetable which was defined by when we eat them.  So the savory tomato is considered a vegetable by are palate and by the court.

This week’s artist, Dennis Wojtkiewicz, takes painting fruit/vegetables (depending on who you side with above) to a new level. His distinctive large-scale fruit, vegetables and flowers are painted with a combination of realism and being heavenly lit to create a sense of religious ardor for yummy plant parts.

P.S. Please share.

Aries – Four of Cups

Dennis WojtkiewiczThe Four of Cups asks you not to spend too much time gazing at your belly button.   You do need to check in with your emotions all this week, but in doing so, don’t stay too long in your internal emotional landscape.  Look up and out or you will miss some good loving from the outside.

 

*Taurus – Emperor

The Emperor is the card of manifestation, so this is a pivotal week in your material plane.  This week work on projects that are already in play.  By working with what is instead of what could be will carry you farther in the following weeks.

 

Continue reading Tarotcast for the Week of September 16, 2018