My Research Paper: Symbolism within the Tarot and Comparative Visual Analysis

The paper that I wrote as the culmination of the undergraduate research project I've been working for the past year and a half is finally finished and published online! I can't quite believe it hasn't even been two full years since I first began planning and preparing for this project; it feels like I've been working on it for so much longer than that.

I'm pretty sure that most of the people I know who are likely to actually bother to read this blog of mine already know all about my project, because I tend to get very talkative about things I'm excited about with people I believe to be willing to put up with my long, passionate ramblings. However, on the off chance that by some miracle someone is reading this who is not one of those people who I've already told all about it, then I will explain it as simply and briefly as I can, so you can choose whether or not to read it.

It's a proposal of a relatively practical, comprehensive method of how to conduct an in-depth study of the Tarot through a progression leading from objective visual analysis of individual cards (from any deck), to comparative visual analysis of multiple cards, to broad research, ending in the synthesis and interpretation of all that has been learned.
As someone who finds the Tarot to be incredibly interesting and rich topic of research, I want to encourage others to discover how fascinating and rewarding it can be to engage in a serious study the Tarot, whether undertaken for academic purposes or to learn how to perform readings of them, or both. I hope this paper can be a resource that can help inspire, guide or somehow assist in the learning of those who might be interested in studying the Tarot, even in the smallest of ways.

My paper is shared on the University Digital Conservancy and is free for anyone to read. Here's the link to it: http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/116801 It can be read or downloaded in PDF format.

iPod Doodles and Sketches from Early Fall

Sorry I haven't been updating much lately, but school's in full swing and I've got a lot of irons on the fire all the time now. However, despite all the busy hustle and bustle I have been able to keep myself doing art regularly, with the help of my new iPod touch and an app called "Artstudio", which is pretty much like a basic version of Photoshop, and it's just brilliant. I've been sketching and doodling on it during my classes, instead of a on notebook like I was before. It took a bit of getting used to, but it's really fun to work with.

So here are some of the little works I've made on my iPod. There are some silly little low-quality brainfart pieces, and also some sketches of random classmates.

Sketches from Class: Early September

Sorry I haven't been a very active blogger as of late - I'm afraid both the end of summer and the beginning of the school year have been a mite hectic. I haven't been doing  too much art lately, but school has afforded me the wonderful opportunity to have lots of artistic subjects that I can draw discretely while they're distracted by a teacher. Here are some of the sketches I've made during my lectures.

 

Which Reality is Virtual? - Combination Digital and Screen Print:

A print created for a class assignment, from about two years ago, for which we had to combine a digitally printed image with a screen printing image. In this print, the head, goggles, and monitor are all digitally printed, and the images on the screen of the monitor are screen printed on top of it. The pictures I used for this all came off of google images, and while I photoshopped and rearranged them, I do not claim them to be my own.

Poetry Book Pamphlet Design

I'm planning to post here about some of my slightly older projects and art, that I ought to have talked about earlier but forgot, and I thought I could start it off with a little something that has to do with my mom. She's a talented writer and poet, a passionate, caring and strong person, and a mom that I am constantly proud of and thankful for. I could have asked for no better mother to have been born to.

My brilliant mother, Theresa Alberti.

But enough of me buttering up my mom so she will be less unhappy if I eat rhubarb cake and refried beans for dinner - let's get down to business. And of course, by "business" I mean "plugging my mom's book of poetry and encouraging you to spend your money on it".

This is her website, where you can learn about her and read samples of her poetry. Her book is available here on amazon. My painting is even on the cover!

I'm bringing this up because of something my mother wanted my help with a while ago. She was going to an event where she would have the opportunity to advertise and sell her book. She thought it might be a good idea to make some fliers or pamphlets about it to pass around, so she wrote up the information she would like to have on it and asked me for help with the design, since I have a generally good eye for that sort of thing. So then I went about rearranging and tweaking it into something that I hope looks at least somewhat professional.

Below are the two versions - the original one my mother put together is on  the left, and my own modified version is on the right. I blurred out her phone number for privacy's sake, but everything else is intact.

Go check out her website and poetry, and if you find those interesting, please go take a look at her book too!

Steampunk Clay Cyborg Face Pendant

A cyborg face pendant that I created using polymer clay, miscellaneous metal bits and beads at a craft workshop at Convergence, a scifi/fantasy/anime/gaming convention. We were supposed to make hearts out of the clay, but I decided to try something different. I would have put some little gears on it to make it obviously steampunk (because you can make just about anything steampunk by sticking a gear to it) but everyone else at my table had already grabbed them by the time I got around to thinking about it. But it's still pretty cool without any gears, and I'm happy with how it turned out.