Three of Wands

I had no big inspiration for this tarot card. Expansion, travel, being rooted then reaching out. It all made good sense but it's a super boring image on the RWS deck (sorry Pamela). i thought about painting my super preggers niece (two plus one makes a family..) but nah. Conveniently I was planning a short jaunt to the paradise island of Maui to visit some very old friends and scatter my father-in-laws ashes in the sadly burnt (like my own city of Santa Rosa) town of La Haina, where he had lived and run a hotel for many years, many years ago. Amazingly, or really not so amazingly, I found the images for this painting there.

I snapped the photo of the surfer girl on the beach as a joke for my brother. Originally her bikini bottom only had a small triangle (the symbol of divinity reversed!) that only played at covering her ass. I loved that she was super hot and knew it but had a more full figure. Later that day we walked the Kapalua labyrinth in the mouth of the dragon, beside a rough ocean. The wind was furious. As I walked into the pattern of the labyrinth it pushed me back, my windbreaker beating madly against my arms. When I turned a corner the wind tried to push me off the path, and when I walked away from the ocean the wind pushed me quickly forward. When someone else passed me on the tiny trail it was jarring and uncomfortable, breaking my meditation, but I came to be able to adapt to it.It was life, so clearly! I drew the turtle partly from life and partly from a photo I took standing in an eddy, watching the turtle look again and again for a good spot to come out onto rocks in the sun.

My friend Richard told me about the walking palms. They put down roots in the direction of the sun and pull up the ones in the shade, slowly moving forward, expanding over time, literally walking, albeit slowly. Moving while rooted. Perfect. We wandered through the palms, still dancing in that strong wind. There were duck eggs tucked in amongst their roots, little nests. After I painted the picture, adding the labyrinth on the back of the turtle, the lessons we carry with us on our journeys, I flashed back to our own 2 pet red eared slider turtles. They were rescue pets from Taiwan (we literally flew back to the States with them, dousing them occasionally in the airplane bathroom sink...those were different days). When we moved to Northern California they lived in a large vintage metal tub in our backyard for a few years. I came out to visit one afternoon and found them gone. A month later I was gardening about 200 feet from the house, half way from the tub to the creek that ran along the foot of our large yard, and there I found a clutch of turtle eggs! I guess they sailed away. Put down roots then went off adventuring. I hope they are doing well. (no, to answer your question, the eggs didn't hatch. They were a loving lesbian couple- both female).

I found the frame-in-the-frame at a thrift store. It was some sort of horizontal print of trees. Not sure why they thought it should be a frame in a frame, but I'm not complaining as it epitomized expansion (and some of the tree branches remain, looking like roots or mycelium). Yep, it already had the crack where, ultimately, the root would break through. It cost 9 dollars which was definitely in the budget.

I drew the original image with a Chinese brush and ink and then carved into the wood of this painting with my Japanese wood carving tools, something I used to do all the time. carving is a tool I used to use but hadn't for over two years because I wanted this deck to be consistent. But 'consistency' is no way to make inspired art or to grow as an artist. Consistency is waterfalls and windmills like Thomas Kincaide over and over. And this is likely a five year project! I think this deck will find its own framing (pun intended), it's own set (in math terms). I also painted the wild background of wind whipped palm fronds and underwater abstraction before I painted the main figures. This was a first for me! Im trying new ways to break into more intuitiveness. I've been reading Rick Rubins book "The Creative Act". In it he writes " The heart of open-mindedness is curiosity. Curiosity doesn't take sides or insist on a single way of doing things, it explores all perspectives. Always open to new ways. Always seeking to arrive at original insights. Craving constant expansion. It looks upon the outer limits of the mind with wonder. It pushes to expose falsely set boundaries, and breakthrough to new frontiers." Sometimes, you know, it feels like the author is just talking to you! Although it wasn't Rubin who first inspired me to break open my frames, literally, of my paintings, I can really imagine him, with his big ole beard saying "right on Sharon". Thanks Rick. You just described what this card is for me. I hope people see an image from this deck and break through their boundaries, their paradigms, reaching new frontiers.

Ace of Cups