Major Arcana XXII: The Youth
Woodcut
by Naomi Chen
A STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST
The concept for this giant tarot card struck me at a birthday party, freshly after I’d gotten my fortune read that week by a very hipster tarot professional. The reading was just for fun, but I was intrigued by her idea that you should feel an intimate connection with your personal tarot deck. I browsed through her shop’s card options for ages, but I found that some of the arcana descriptions just didn’t connect with me. I left without a deck, but sitting at the birthday party face-to-face with the audacious butterfly-themed cake, the idea for this project came to life. My own personal arcana. It took me a week to carve the design into the wood, and another to paint it, but now this cutting board-sized, 3D two-sided card is one of my favourite works.
Chewed Up, Rejected
Visual Art
by Naomi Chen
Sometimes growing up feels less like an individual process, and more of something that’s thrust upon you though you didn’t ask. This second piece encapsulates the perspective of a burnt-out, confused high school senior, not healed from application season. When I created it, I wanted to communicate that feel of “I survived, and now what? What could possibly come next? Is it over?” The wave of uncertainty after barely making it out of something alive. When the monster could swallow you back up at any moment, you can’t rest yet. You’re in purgatory, at the mercy of the unknown.