Back in 1994, when I made decent money as an editorial illustrator and had extra for personal projects and crazy promotional material…in the days before digital files, websites and steampunk, I created this little ‘deck’ of illustrated Fortune Cookie cards. It was indeed meant to evoke Victorian Orientalism, but was also inspired by Max Ernst collages and Edward Gorey, mixed with my own, somewhat goth-infused sensibility, for which I was then recognized.
I had at my disposal only J. G. Heck’s ‘Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration’, some 1960s Letraset stock imagery, a Xerox machine, scissors and a Rotring Rapidograph. Oh yes, and a bag of fortune cookies. It was actually one of my Aries Mum’s whim suggestions pulled out of her magic hat, and I thought it sounded like a hoot.
Perhaps it was an early prototype of sorts for the Tarot deck I would begin work on 4 years later, which also uses mixed media, old art, scissors, paint instead of ink and has turned into a Magnum Opus. But the two have little else in common. (I had also completed a deck of illustrated cards (non-Tarot) in 1988, which I may get around to posting at some point).
Maybe in the future (had better see what the crystal ball says), I will do a real deck of ‘fortune telling’ cards, it seems to be a popular thing and might be fun.
One thing at a time. ~rb
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