We admit it: we’re obsessed with Tarot cards. Even if you don’t enjoy dipping your toes into the occult, you can’t help but admire the cards’ design and illustrations. For UK-based illustrator, Sophy Hollington, illustrating a Tarot deck proved as enjoyable as the thing itself, if not more.
Collaborating with writer David Keenan, Hollington created a tarot deck that blends together the traditional and the modern. Her illustrations accompanied Keenan’s novella, To Run Wild In It, which was loosely structured around the cards of a tarot deck, with each chapter being named after one. Hollington used these chapters as a genesis for the artwork of their namesake card, with the result being the Autonomic Tarot.
Her artistic style, inspired by folklore and alchemical symbolism, proved to be quite perfect for the mission at hand. “Every time I finished a card I’d send it to David and he’d come back with a really in-depth interpretation of the art, picking out things I’d not even realized were there,” she told It’s Nice That, explaining the process itself. “It felt so heavy and totally enlightened me to the numinous power of the image.”
“I wasn’t clued up about tarot or it’s users before starting this, so it’s been wonderful to see our deck embraced by that community,” she said. “I’ve heard it really works.”
We’re dying to get our hands on a deck of cards and try for ourselves!
