Blue Door, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper

Other than mom, houses are probably my biggest ongoing theme. Going through my images makes me realize how HUGE houses are in my personal box of symbols. Check this out! Houses spell out a kind of autobiography for me!

Three Houses on a Cliff, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.

Housescape, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.Three Houses on a Cliff, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.

house, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.

Garden House, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.house, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.

House on a Hill, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, mixed media on paper.

The Coyote, Mixed Media Collage on Paper, 22 x 30 inches

The Coyote has a new forever home this week. Thank you Jeff! (I still have prints available, if you need one email me or check out kerrie.etsy.com.)

From time to time I will release limited edition cards to join The Totem Tarot. Some of these cards will be new totems, some will be additional versions of original totems. They are intended to be unique and collectable and will be released in extremely limited editions. They will be sized and formatted to fit in with The Totem Tarot, and will be presented in a paper folder with information about the totem.

The Raven is the first The Totem Tarot booster card and is released in celebration of the release of The Totem Tarot. The Raven is available in an edition of only 22 cards (which is a reflection of the number of cards in the basic totem tarot deck).

The Raven is an explorer of the unknown, whether that unknown is physical, mental or spiritual. The Raven is a totem of knowledge and in many myths brings knowledge and gifts to his friends. The Raven is also a symbol of change (and sometimes death), although since The Raven is also a trickster, highly intelligent and able to best his friends and enemies, perhaps the myth that The Raven can predict death is all just a prank.

The Raven is available in my etsy shop.

We can be guided by different animals at different times in our lives.

We can be guided by different animals at the same time, as well.

This series is about listening to the animal spirits around us and learning what they have to teach us.  This series is now available as an art deck of cards, The Totem Tarot.

Based loosely on a traditional tarot deck, The Totem Tarot is made up of 22 cards. Limited edition booster cards will be released over time, and custom cards may also be available. Each card has an inherent meaning, but it’s also up to the individual using the cards to listen to their intuition to determine what the card is attempting to convey to them. Like animal spirits appearing when they want to guide us, The Totem Tarot can also be used as a guiding force.

Draw a card and meditate upon it to bring a totem’s characteristics into your life. 

Use a card as a reminder or visual prompt to reinforce your mission.

Or, of course, you may ask the totems a question, shuffle the deck, and choose a card at random, taking your answer from the totem that is presenting itself to you.

The Totem Tarot deck is made up of 22 cards. Cards are 2.75 x 3.75 inches, color printed, backed with decorative paper by hand, and laminated. The deck is presented in a paper case. The Totem Tarot is accompanied by a 24 page booklet explaining the individual totems and showing how the cards related to the traditional tarot.

The Totem Tarot is $55, available on etsy. Individual prints of each totem are also available, and some original artworks are available for purchase too. Booster cards will be available over time. If you’re interested in a custom totem, email me.

(Just so you know, The Totem Tarot contains: The Coyote, The Zebra, The Tiger, The Sea Otter, The Horse, The Wolf, The Crow, The Salmon, The Seal, The Turtle, The Bee, The Lion, The Peacock, The Heron, The Butterfly, The Painted Dog, The Hawk, The Owl, The Eagle, The Kingfisher and The Swallow.

Limited edition booster cards will also be released over time, and custom cards may also be available. Each card has an inherent meaning, but it’s also up to the individual using the cards to listen to their intuition to determine what the card is attempting to convey to them. Like animal spirits appearing when they want to guide us, the totem tarot can also be used as a guiding force.

Apparently, I’m making altered books about my family right now. Making Things Grow is about my younger sister, Katie, and explores my feelings of both being a surrogate parent for her AND a big sister. There are a lot of conflicting feelings tangled up in my relationship with my sister.

Here are some pages from Making Things Grow.

Mixed Media, paint, paper, ink, colored pencil, collage, rubber stamped words and hand written lettering.

]]> http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/making-things-grow/feed/ 0 big sis Making Things Grwo http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-grandma-deck/ http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-grandma-deck/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:11:08 +0000 kerriecarbary http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/?p=49 ]]> I just made up another small batch of The Grandma Deck.

This deck is part of an edition, but I do end up making up the decks one by one, because

I make one-of-a-kind pouches, and also stamp the backs of each card individually. So, a few will be adopted by their new home, and then I’ll make a few more up. It’s a fluid process.

The Grandma Deck is an art book in the form of a deck of cards, and is a memorial to my grandmother who died in 1998. This deck is hand printed using the Print Gocco and presented in a paper box, like a traditional deck of cards. This is an edition of 50 decks
The original images are hand drawn, collaged, and stamped. The edition is printed on CONQUERER Natural White Recycled Wove, which is also acid free. Each card measures 2.5 by 3.5 inches, and each deck contains 52 cards.

The four suits of this deck are: jars, bandaids, keys, and buttons.

Most cards have a grandmother memory along with the collage, such as “she spills her treasures trying to count exact change.”

I use a lot of different materials in my altered books: paint, pastel, colored pencil, ink, collage, paper, wax—whatever seems to need to be used.

I’ve been moving, and I came across this!

At Grandma’s House, one of the first books I ever made. The images are etchings, and I did some radical (for me, at the time) handstitching as well.

My family lived in our house on Ashworth Avenue since I was two. A couple of years ago, they finally sold it an moved on to bigger, better digs. This new house, though, isn’t my home. While I’m sure they’d find room for me if necessary, there’s not really a place for me there. The Ashworth House is my childhood home; the house where my pets are buried in the back yard, the sidewalk where I learned to ride my bike, and the driveway where I learned to park my car.

So, when my family moved out, and I helped pack, get rid of stuff, clean, and the other chores that moving families do, it was very hard on me. To memorialize this house, I took photos and incorporated them into collage paintings that became the basis for this deck of cards. I made five copies of The Ashworth Deck and gave one copy to each of my family members—me, my sisters Katie and Kellie, and my mom and dad.

I’m created a slightly revised version of this deck to offer for sale. This version of The Ashworth Deck isn’t personalized, but includes all 22 cards, plus a title card. Each card is 3.5 inches square, color printed and laminated, and presented in a paper wrapper. The cards are great to use to remind yourself of what is important about home, and can also be used as journal prompts, or even framed as individual works of art. If you’d like a copy, they’re available through my etsy shop at kerrie.etsy.com.
]]> http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/the-ashworth-deck/feed/ 0 big sis ashworth deck http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/a-horse-and-a-dad/ http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/a-horse-and-a-dad/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:37:19 +0000 kerriecarbary http://kerriecarbary.wordpress.com/?p=124 ]]> Here’s a mini altered book I created about my relationship with my (step) dad. I fell in love with making miniature art while making this book!

This book is all about wishing for a dad when I was younger, and then realizing that there is never perfection when wishes come true. Overall size is about 2 x 3 inches, and I used gesso, collage, paint, pastel, pencil, ink, and windowscreen.