Mundane Tarot
2006
Mary Beth & Jon Cantwell
USA
Art Medium:
Mary Beth Cantwell created the designs and drew the outlines in pen and then had her seven year old son, Jon, colour them in with coloured pencil or felt tip markers - the title card for the deck actually shows this in a little picture.
Description:
The cards are printed on parchment mimicing card on a rather poor quality inkjet and cut out by hand with scissors so that they are a bit irregular. The designs are domestic, autobiographical and full of humour. The Fool shows a woman being given an ultrasound scan to confirm her pregnancy. The Hanged Man shows a woman upside down on one of those strange exercise machines that people are encouraged to buy, while in the Nine of Pentacle the Mother lies in bed with her child while a cat sleeps on the bedcover. In a strange way the designs for this deck are quite touching, as we are being given a little look into Marybeth Cantwell's life. Her tarot is partly an autobiography. It seems no artifice or cynical manipulation is being pressed on us here. Poo