- Joanna Powell Colbert - USA
- The Gaian Tarot celebrates the living Earth and those who seek to live in harmony with Her. The imagery of the deck combines multicultural Goddesses and other numinous beings with the mysteries of the natural world. Each image features birds, animals, plants, trees, rocks, constellations and other aspects of nature that amplify the meaning of the card. With its structure rooted in Tarot tradition, the Gaian Tarot is the perfect deck for those who honor Gaia, the earth, as a living, sentient being and who practice an earth-centered spirituality. Gaian Tarot is a work in progress.
My chosen art form is one I call “colored pencil paintings.” It is a very slow, time-intensive medium, but the results are well worth it. The original of each card measures approximately 12"x18". There are 80-100 hours of work in each one.
- Joanna is an artist and writer known internationally for her Goddess portraits and mythic art. Her artwork and writing appears often in the magazines SageWoman and PanGaia as well as many other alternative publications. Amber Lotus Publishers call her one of “the most accomplished and well-loved artists in the Goddess-spirit community.”
- Joanna has taught classes on the Goddess, Tarot and earth-centered spirituality in the Northwest since 1991. In the early 1990's, she helped revive The Beltane Papers: A Journal of Women’s Mysteries, and served as its managing editor for four years, co-creating the magazine with Helen Farias, Waverly Fitzgerald and a wildly creative collective of women.
- Her current projects include a web design business, photo-illustrations of Northwest island landscapes, and the creation of the Gaian Tarot.
- Joanna writes:
“I first discovered Tarot cards in high school in the late 60’s and have had the creation of my own Tarot deck on the back burner for at least 15 years. I’ve taught many classes and workshops on the Tarot and am an avid collector of decks. A few years ago I stopped working with the cards and went on an ‘oracle fast.’ During this time I moved to a small island (pop. 800), built a straw bale house with my husband, started a wilderness awareness course and learned a new art technique (colored pencil painting). When I returned to the world of Tarot, it was with new eyes, new ears and a renewed sense of excitement. Creating my own deck grew out of that energy.
I love the Tarot because it provides a framework upon which to hang our own interpretations and philosophies, yet the framework itself is rich in universal meaning. In the Tarot, we find the universal in the particular.”
- Joanna lives on a small island, Lummi Island, in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, musician Craig Olson, where daily encounters with the mysteries of the natural world continue to inspire and inform her work. They live in a straw bale house they built themselves, which they call Heron House.
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