Eight Of Coins
"Will Work For Peanuts" oil on old paint box - not for sale
How long ago did I paint myself as this elephant headed artist?? I used my grandmother's oil paint box, sticky inside with spilled varnish, linseed oil stained, blue paint smears from the tubes of cerulean and Prussian blue she used to paint ocean waves in Cape May. I painted this elephant artist's self-portrait 15 years ago, and my aunt bought it. When she passed away three years ago I inherited it. So strange the yo-yo of inheritance. It wasn't until I started painting Tarot images that I knew it could be my 8 of pentacles. Elephant me (not me really, the idea of me) paints 8 cartoon peanuts falling. I was working my butt off as an illustrator at the time, having graduated from California College of Art with a degree in illustration. I was making my own art when I could but also up at night painting quick deadline editorial illustrations for magazines like Self, and Mother Earth News. My baby would wake up and I would stop to nurse him. I titled this painting "Will Work For Peanuts". I needed any work I could get back then.
The hard work of painting and raising children in those days, only being able to buy groceries once the bills were paid and the paycheck gathered, the hard work my partner put in, literally knocking on doors to build his business, has made our lives easier now. We built this life. We are both very skilled at what we do, twenty years later. Twenty years of hammering golden pentacles, the maker of the coins.
In a reference I read from cartomancy, the eight of diamonds (pentacles, shields, coins) represents "the material guardian of the goods of the dead". Which goes perfectly with having painted it on my grandmother's paint box! Now I have just brought home my mothers paint box as well, with its stains and stories. Perhaps it will also become art.
But should I use a painting I've made ages ago for this Artist Journey Tarot series? Is it cheating? Am I breaking the slowly evolved rules of this process? Rules I myself wrote?
It's not like I don't have a new idea for this painting after researching the 8 of pentacles. You know me, not short on ideas and images. In the Rider Waite Smith deck a young person hammers out eight gold coins that seem to be fruit on a vine. With the living pentacles that he's working on growing something, it makes me think of the traditional story of Jack and the beanstalk, where he is climbing to enlighten himself and better himself symbolically. I could paint a Jack and the Beanstalk image. He would wear a little Mason's apron meaning he is giving back to his community. I could paint the leaves and pods on the vine or golden fruits. I love to paint botanical images. If I do use my elephant painting I may add to it. Perhaps more artwork flying about? A subtle vine climbing the curtain? Okay, obviously I wrote this and then decided to do just that! Now an embroidered vine snakes up the curtain, alluding to woman's work. Was I not up at night nursing that baby while painting? That's some serious creative multi-tasking! And a light shines from behind the curtain, behind the veil, hinting that hard work will bring enlightenment...or maybe death! hahaha. Perhaps the glow hints that enlightenment is reached through hard work, or Karma Marga, as it is taught in Hinduism. A real vine sneaks over the peanut rain painting, reality peeling away from the unreal. At any rate, it was strange to work back into a painting I finished so long ago! I was frustrated seeing how badly I'd painted certain areas, which wasn't fair to the younger me. But it honored and compromised with the process of this journey.
I generally disregard Alister Crowley's take on the tarot, not because it isn't astute, but because he often leans a different direction metaphorically (I think rather purposefully and narcissistically). His words don't often agree fully with the traditional tarot meanings of each card. But Crowley states that the eight of discs is about "Waiting for your investment to fruit. To grow. To be ready." It's the strength in doing nothing at all. Once again, this take on this 8 of pentacles is rather different from the idea that this card is about working hard! But it resonates for me.Or at the very least it gives me permission to use this painting I made 20 years ago. To rest, leaning on old productivity, remembering the work I've put in. Don't get me wrong, I love it when I get this eight! I get to go down to my studio and paint! That's all I really want to do, put in the work. How far have I come as an artist in 20 years? How good will I be in another twenty? Who will paint a picture on my paintbox?
Will Work For Peanuts" oil on old paint box- not for sale
