|
 |
|
|
|
In October of 2002 my 4 year old daughter Sophie and I were packing various tarot sundries for our trip to the Bay Area Tarot Symposium (BATS) in San Francisco, CA.. She was so excited about the upcoming event that she sat down and drew out her own Major Arcana. The following summer, at 5 years old, she finished her deck with a complete Minor Arcana.
Even at a young age tarot was no mystery to Sophie. I began work on my own tarot, the Mary-el tarot, when she was just a baby and she has witnessed every aspect of the creative process on a daily basis. She also has had access to a variety of different tarot decks and has always loved looking at the artwork on them. Like many modern tarotists she is particularly enamored with the Rider Waite.
Something I always did with Sophie was to let her develop in her own artistic way. I never told her what to draw, how to draw it, and what colors to use. I never gave her a coloring book and never told her how she should or shouldn't see things. This tarot is the last expression of art she would make while still artistically innocent and unshaped by how the larger world thinks things should be seen and portrayed in art. Shortly after this she started kindergarten and was never exactly the same again.
As far as I know this is the only tarot deck actually drawn completely by a small child, a nice compliment to the other tarot decks out there which are themed for children or simulate children's art or explore the tarot pattern through the innocence of a child's outlook.
All images copyright 2002-2003, Sophie M. White, all rights reserved.
