The Tarot Art Calendar 2005
A Limited Edition
By Leslie Cochran & Arnell Ando
Wow! When I found this calendar reviewed on my favorite tarot page (Tarot Passages)
and ordered one for myself I couldn’t wait for it to arrive. When it did it
exceeded my expectations and inspired me on many levels. The Tarot Art Calendar
2005 is a handmade, signed calendar created by two Southern California artists,
Leslie Cochran and Arnell Ando, creator of the Transformational Tarot. Each
month is illustrated with a major Arcana tarot image that fits the month. April,
for instance is the Fool and May is the Empress. The Magician begins the year
and the Lovers are for February, Death illustrates October.
The production is very professional. It is spiral bound. The pages are on glossy
card stock. The artwork is in full color and the colors are lovely. The calendar
pages themselves are easy to read and show the major holidays plus the birthdays
of the artists. (Arnell is in June and Leslie is in July.) Each month includes a
paragraph about the art, the process of creating the art, about what the imagery
means to the artist, or about how the tarot card relates to a particular time of
year.
January is Major Arcana I, The Magician by Leslie Cochran. He looks like Bob
Dylan (he isn’t, he’s her brother) in a brown top hat and overcoat. He strums a
banjo and stands in the snow. At his feet a white rabbit jumps out of a hat and
daisies bloom. The sky is violet and blue with clouds and lightening and a mossy
tree trunk reaches for the top of the card. The mood is one of contemplation,
secrecy and magic. I like how the lightening bolt leads into the neck of the
banjo. He isn’t just a man in a snowy field, he is the Magician with all the
elements of the earth at this command. The text reads; “The Magician strikes a
chord on his banjo, and at once the air is electrified, a symbiosis of
lightening bold energy and the ancient music that emanates from the hills and
hollows….”
February is Major Arcana VI, The Lovers, by Arnell Ando. It is a collage in rosy
sepia tones of women in old-fashioned bathing suits. The central two figures are
seen from the back, sitting side by side. Their heads are inclined toward each
other and above them is a face of another woman, looking off to the right. There
is a lot going on in this image. As I write, I notice the hands interlaced in
the foreground and there is a woman doing a back bend over the hands and
grinning. Two women in black ‘20’s style bathing suits walk arm in arm toward
the sea. Arnell writes; “….Love in all its forms including self-love is being
celebrated here and with this, I wish you a wickedly wonderful Valentine’s Day!”
I like how the collage takes traditional tarot imagery a step farther. In the
Spiral deck the Lovers, a naked man and woman are seen embracing. The man looks
at the woman and the woman looks over his head at the angel in the sky. In this
deck the angel is the woman above. She looks meditative, her head is inclined to
the right and her eyes look off into the distance. Perhaps she represents
self/inner love. The woman doing back flips reminds me of goofy happy adolescent
love, the women walking arm in arm could be friends - another kind of love.
Lovers card makes me smile and think of the joy that the many kinds of love can
bring.
There is a wicked humor to the art work in the Tarot Art Calendar. One of my
favorite images is April which is, of course, Major Arcana 0, The Fool, by
Arnell Ando. He, like so many Fools, is taking a step. This step, however looks
like a step in a gunfight on a western street. He wears an artist’s beret and a
star. Beneath his star, on his long orange jacket is a sign that reads “Notes.”
He wears large cowboy boots. His dog is a large yellow hound on the traditional
right of the page. But instead of warning the Fool he sits dutifully staring
ahead. He looks like an old dog, a companion of many years, used to his foolish
human. The Fool holds a book of dreams in his right hand and his left hand is a
hook. The building behind him is dark and eerie. An eye can be seen peering out
of the top garret. This is a dreamy Fool. Is this really happening or is he
dreaming? Is he a cowboy, is he an artist? The stars and the moon in the
periwinkle sky look like a stage backdrop. Only the dog seems to know what is
going on and he’s not talking.
Leslie Cochran has an as yet unnamed tarot deck in progress and is a
professional illustrator. Arnell Ando is the creator of Transformational Tarot,
the Hero’s Journey Tarot and The Storyteller Tarot. Like this calendar, they
were created as limited editions and are now sold out. You can see images of
these magical decks on her website. The tarot cards for the Tarot Art Calendar
2005 appear to have been made specifically for the calendar, it is an original
and intriguing deck, on that I would love to do readings with. I e-mailed to
Arnell to ask her to put me on the list to buy a copy of her deck and to tell
her I was going to write this review. Her answer was that there are 35 calendars
left. You can contact either Arnell Ando or Leslie Cochran at their websites to
order a copy of this calendar. It’s a gem - A major arcana card for every month
from a wildly creative, colorful and exciting deck. This is a piece of
collectable fine art at a reasonable price.
Carolyn Skrzydlewski is an artist and professional tarot reader. You can contact
her for a tarot reading by calling Déjà vu Publishing, 510-644-1600.
