creating the deck
While designing Van Gogh Tarot, I spent an absurd amount of time staring at hundreds of Van Gogh paintings on a large monitor. When I zoomed in on the brushstrokes, I discovered something unexpected: a hidden world of color. Bold, modern combinations I hadn’t noticed before lit up the screen. Some of my favorite WOW moments from working with his paintings are below. It’s like seeing pure creativity under a microscope.
And that’s exactly what we’re doing when we work with tools like Tarot and Oracle cards. We’re zooming in on our own lives—internally and externally. When we have the willingness to look a bit closer, patterns tend to emerge.
"I believe that the way one works with color can be its own kind of poetry."
— Vincent van Gogh
One of the biggest turning points for me while creating this deck was reading "Van Gogh: The Life" by Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. This 960 page book shatters all the clichés of Vincent as The Tortured Genius, The Crazy Artist, The Loner, The Misunderstood Artist, and of course, The Madman Who Cut Off His Ear. These stereotypes reduce Van Gogh to a caricature and, more dangerously, fuel myths about creativity that can quietly take root in our own thinking—limiting what we believe is possible. Suffering is not a prerequisite to being creative. It’s about showing up, staying curious, and moving beyond these tired old narratives. It's the possibility that you are more than your Story because your creativity is always evolving and changing. The way you see the world is ever expanding. This deck is a creative tool that is designed to support you. Especially if you're looking for answers to questions that keep coming up. You already know. Use the cards as visual mirrors that will show you what needs your attention when it comes to living a creative life.
