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Collage(Arnell Ando and Michele Jackson have already written definitive essays on collage and Tarot. My meager addition to their information follows.) Victoria Regina is a work of collage. The source material for this deck is steel and wood engravings from the late Victorian era (1880-1895), a time that I consider a golden age of commercial illustration. Printing technology had advanced enough to allow newspapers and magazines to publish finely detailed engravings, but the "halftone" technique for printing photographs had not yet been developed. My favorite resource for this deck was The Illustrated London News, a weekly newspaper which employed dozens of artists to create engravings of current events, portraits of celebrities, copies of paintings from contemporary exhibitions, and illustrations to accompany serialized fiction. The paper sent illustrators along to wars and foreign expeditions, just as a modern newspaper would send a photojournalist. Many of the cards in this deck were inspired by striking images from The Illustrated London News, which is still in circulation (now a monthly news magazine with color photographs instead of engravings). Harper's and The Sketch are also good antique resources. Any good research library (such as a university library) should have a collection of illustrated periodicals. Collage has become a popular medium for Tarot art over the past few years, including many remarkable decks such as Transformational Tarot, Jumbledance Tarot, Enchanted Tarot, Cosmic Tribe Tarot and Vertigo Tarot. Collage is perhaps the most accessible art medium, since skill in drawing or painting is not required. All that is needed to begin work in collage is a collection of source imagery. Magazines and art books provide a nearly infinite resource for personal work. However, if you hope someday to display or publish your work, it's best to use copyright-free source material and thus avoid any potential problems with copyright infringement. The Dover Pictorial Archive publishes dozens of books full of copyright-free imagery; Scan This Book is another good series. Both Dover and Scan This Book have been used extensively in the creation of this deck. (See my web site Copyyright for Collage Artists for more information on copyright as it relates to collage.) Of course, collage source material need not be paper: photographs, textiles, wallpaper samples, and objects (such as dried flowers or leaves, coins, bits of metal or twine, etc) can all be included. And if you have traditional art experience, your paintings and drawings can add a great deal of depth to your work. The tools required to create collage are minimal: simply scissors and glue. Along with all-purpose scissors, a small blade makes detailed cutting go much easier. Some collagists use hairdresser's scissors for this purpose; I prefer an Xacto™ knife. Be sure to sharpen your scissors or change the blade as soon as it begins to dull. (I used up a box of 40 blades in the production of this deck!) Regarding adhesive, a glue stick or craft glue is adequate for everyday purposes. But if you intend your work to last for any length of time, you will want to invest in acid-free, permanent glue or paste, as well as acid-free papers on which to mount your collage. After only three or four years, plain bond paper is visibly yellowed, and glue stick dries up, allowing bits of your work to peel away. Bookbinding suppliers are a good resource for quality glue and paper. When researching source material for collage, try to see each image outside its original context. It doesn't matter who a figure was, or what they were doing, in the original; what matters is the meaning you create. With the proper context, an explorer giving a scientific lecture becomes the Magician, and a society lady doing party tricks for her children becomes the Temperance Angel.
The key to collage is composition. A successful collage uses style, positioning, tone, and color in harmony, to create a balanced, pleasing effect. Random, unplanned use of collage elements can lead to a chaotic, jumbled appearance. In this deck I have restricted my source material to a single style and color range, but this is by no means necessary. Great collage often uses a wide variety of colors and styles, combining imagery from disparate origins to create a coherent new whole. Once you have found the images you wish to use, experiment with size and placement before committing yourself. Sizing images used to be a problem for collage artists, but with color photocopiers and scanners readily available, this is no longer the case. A few images in this deck (for example, the cliff in the Fool card) were resized on a computer and laser printed, but most were resized with a photocopier. If you have access to a good scanner and color printer, you may wish to forego the traditional scissors and glue, and create your collages entirely on the computer instead. Digital collage is a relatively new medium which can achieve remarkable effects which would have been impossible with traditional collage (for examples, see the Vertigo Tarot and Cosmic Tribe Tarot). Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is not to worry about rules. Experiment with a variety of techniques, even those that seem like mistakes. On further reflection, you may find that the "mistakes," the unexpected or adventurous efforts, often yield the best results. The best way to learn to collage is simply to do it. Look at the work of other artists, consider what you find appealing in their work, and how similar techniques could be applied to your own efforts. Over time you will develop a personal style all your own. --Sarah Ovenall
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