Eight of Pentacles

"The Eight of Pentacles"

acrylic and silver leaf on birch panel

11 x 14 inches, deep set panel

2013

$600.00

(SOLD)

Here's my painting for the Eight of Pentacles card for Modern Eden's show, "Tarot: Art of Fortune", curated by Warholian's Michael Cuffe.

This is the traditional imagery of the card:

Per Wikipedia, the divination usage is as follows:

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.  

Divinatory meanings:  Work, employment, commission, craftmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage.  Steady patience with achievement kept in mind.  Reversed: voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury.  It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.

On learntarot.com, I found that the card means diligence, knowledge and detail.

So, for my interpretation I wanted to create a creature that represents knowledge and wisdom, hence the eight winged-barn owl.  The creature is based on Glaucus, Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom)'s owl, that was seen as a symbol for wisdom and vigilance for it's ability to see in the dark and keep itself awake at night.  

My owl has a third all-seeing eye, silver-leafed pentacle for each wing, and represents new knowledge overcoming old, dead ideas (the skull that it is perched upon) and clutches a magnifying glass to better read by candlelight. It wears the 4th Pentacle of Mercury talisman around it's neck, which gives knowledge and understanding of secrets and hidden things. 

Along with the magnifying glass, the owl holds a bunch of clover (signifying hard work and education in Floriography, the Victorian language of flowers), rosemary (wisdom) flanks the pentacle above it's head, and blue salvia (wisdom) and cherry blossoms (good education) peak out from behind the book.

Here's the flyer for the show, opening this Saturday, March 16th in San Francisco.

It will be an amazing show with a ton of fantastic artists interpreting the tarot.