Artist Statement
I was born and raised in the Sonoran Desert and my connection to this place deeply informs my relationship to land, water, and human development.
This project comprises a tarot deck focused on the Sonoran Desert as a biome and a landscape marked by layers of colonization and cultural appropriations, interactions, and adaptations. The deck represents aspects of the desert landscape through the lens of meanings represented in the traditional tarot deck. Each card is meant to be understood as it relates to other cards, with many permutations and layers of meaning each time the cards are shuffled and arranged for a reading. This deck is a celebration of the Sonoran Desert’s history and the place it is now.
My intention for the finished work is that the tarot deck will be accompanied by a book that interprets the meaning of the cards but also creates a framework for understanding how the cards can work together as an interrelated system.
This framework will be a grimoire.
Desert Cottontail
White-lined Sphinx Moth
Cactus Wren
Bobcat
Woodboring Beetle
Devil’s Claw
Couch’s Spadefoot Toad
Harris’s Hawk
Javelina
Summer Poppy
Jumping Cholla
Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion
