But What Are Oracle Cards?

Oracle cards?  Like at Delphi?  You aren’t the first to ask!

These cards come from inspiration from a couple of very talented artist.  First is Tammy from Daisy Yellow. Every June and July she hosts the Index Card a Day Challenge.  Draw, paint, doodle, collage–on a 3×5 card.  Nothing precious, nothing out of reach.  Just a simple way to build the habit of making into your days.  We have participated for many years now.  So it just made sense to make my cards on index cards!

Tara Leaver posted about creating her own oracle cards.  Her work is luminous; I really like her painting.  My cards are very much patterned after Tara’s–vertical orientation, image-washi tape-word, rounded corners.  Tara mentioned that she knew her cards needed to have images that meant something to her.  And that really resonated with me.  So I looked through the stack of square prints I’d had made and found images that called out to me…and that wouldn’t be too compromised by the cropping I would need to do.  I painted the cards using water soluable pastels.  They are a revelation.  All the fluid motion of watercolors plus the vivid color of guache.  And sooo easy to use!

Finally, I chose the words.  Nouns.  This is a departure for me.  Usually I’m all about the verbs.  I used prompts from Andrea Scher’s Storybowl Project to get the ideas flowing.  Then I made lists and lists.  And I’ve been pulling from those to match an image with a word.

By far the most satisfying collection of cards I’ve ever made for ICAD.  Maybe one of my favorite things I’ve made period!  But what am I going to *do* with them?  Look at them.  Hold them in my hands.  Let them speak life to me.