So here it is http://www.mickiemuellerart.blogspot.com

Please stop by to visit.

I fare thee well,

Mickie

The Willow Card- Intuition/ The Unseen

Drumroll please….

We put everyones names on a sheet of paper, cut them apart and then folded them up and placed them into the sacred Indiana Jones fedora.  Tristan closed his eyes and reached in after much stiring of the names.  It was a very solumn occasion and he took the responsibility of it all very seriously. He drew a name, unfolded it, we all held our breath…

It’s Kathy!  I’ve sent you an email my dear!  Kathys favorite card was the Oak Tree-Strength/Endurance, so congratulations Kathy.  Drop me a private message with your mailing address and I’ll send that print right out to you!  Congratualtions!!!

I was really happy with the responses, there were many people who had several favorites and had to narrow it down. 

The one card that got the most votes was Willow- Intuition/The Unseen, so that one will be the third print offered along with Fionns Window and The Ogham Shield.

Many more of the runners up will become available before Yule, so don’t dispair, you’ll also see them on many other fun items both handmade and from Cafe Press coming up very soon! 

Thanks everyone so very much for taking the time to look though the new art, and for your wonderful input!  This was so much fun, I’ll try to come up with some more contest ideas!

Blessings!

Mickie

The Gooseberry card in my deck represents comfort and success, so I wanted to portray a woman of means, probably a clan leader so she has purple cloak, which was hard and expensive dye to get long ago, her husband probably traded for it from a visiting dignitary.  She also has very beautiful and ornate jewelry, showing her high status.   She is out picking ripe gooseberries, not because she has to, but because she wants to.  As she turns admiring the beauty of the land all around her and secure in her place in it, she has inadvertently tipped the full bowl of berries just a bit as a few spill out but won’t be missed because she has plenty, and even more waiting to be picked.

This card speaks of abundance, confidence, status and joy. This one should be done in a day or two, I’ll post the finished piece on my Voice of the Trees website soon.  Speaking of which, there are several new pieces loaded in the gallery on my website, so pop over and take a peek.

My concept sketches are often pretty rough, just to get an idea down on paper, very basic.  So the finished illustration often changes quite a bit from that original sketch.  I like to be able to listen to my inspiration as I go along, rather than keeping the blinders on and having to stick to a sketch.  As you can see from my original sketch (on the previous post) and these images, that is a process that often pays off pretty well.

This is a work in progress, I still need to finish the terrified Ulster men.

Here is a detail of the Elder card

Living in Missouri for as long as I have made creating menacing storm clouds in the background much easier, heck, I’m looking at some very similar out my window right now.  We get those very “Spielbergian” skies here, you can tell someone who’s lived in the Midwest for awhile, because when the tornado sirens are going off, we’re outside looking up and only run to the basement when we can tear ourselves away from the show!   Sometimes it’s so beautiful and scary at the same time, it made me think of this card, so I wanted to include it.

Elder Card Concept Sketch

I’m working on the Elder card for my new oracle deck www.voiceofthetrees.com I’ll be finished with it soon.  Draco (Paganisms Next Top Model LOL)   modeled for me, I got some really great photos of her.  This card is all about consequence and regret.  I’m portraying the Goddess Macha while cursing the men of Ulster.

According to legend, The Goddess Macha married a mortal man in secret and told him he couldn’t brag to anyone.  She became pregnant with twins, and in her last month, her husband went off to the Lughnassahd games.  There were many competitions there, one being a horse race.  Her husband began to brag that his wife could beat any horse in a race because she was a Goddess, even the kings horse.  So she was brought to the fair and forced to race the kings horse to prevent her husband from being killed.  Furious, she ran the race and won, the proceeded to give birth to her twins.  She then cursed all the men of Ulster that in their time of need, they would experience her labor pains!  Never mess with a mom, they’ll take you down, and it will be personal.  So the men of Ulster were unable to fight during the Cattle Raid of Cooley, and the hero Cuchulain had to fight all by himself while the men were all having labor!

I don’t know why, I just love that story!   I thought it was a pretty good representation in Celtic legend of consequence and regret, perfect for the Elder card.

Anyway, it seems that as I have created this deck, I seem to be experiencing life situations that are reflections of the cards I’m working on, maybe it’s all that magic I put into each one.  Friday afternoon as I started printing reference photos at work, I went to help my boss take the trash out, and  I was stung by a wasp!  I recognised it immediately as a consequence of not taking care of them when I first noticed the nest they were building on the hinges of the dumpster!  Regret it?  You bet I did, I’m taking care of the wasp population tomorrow, so no one else gets stung!  I still managed to get to the art supply store for my last sheet of illustration board, but Friday was a very painful day.  I worked on sketches with a bag of frozen corn on my shoulder!  LOL

So little consequences here and there cropping up as I went,   I’ve paid my dues for this piece, I’m trying to get it done as quickly as possible to avoid any more regret.  The last card is Gooseberry, that’s comfort and success…so here’s hoping that one will manifest!

Back to the old art table, shields up, head down, screen door firmly closed!

Blessings,

Mickie

     I had the inspiration to turn the Ogham alphabet into an illustrated deck in 2003.  I had begun doing research on this very in depth topic, and visualizing images, even creating sketches a little bit at a time.  The project kept making periodic appearences on my old wooden art table from time to time.  Then in spring of 2004, I was contacted by Raven Grimassi and asked to illustrate “The Well Worn Path,” and then later “The Hidden Path” decks.  So, the idea of an Ogham deck went on the backburner for quite some time, while I created the artwork for those two decks.  Once those decks were done, I decided to revisit the idea, and was quite pleased that when I presented the proposal to Llewellyn, they decided to contract me to create it!

     The Ogham has been used in divination by carving the symbols (fews) on twigs or wooden tiles. The Ogham system itself is intriguing, rich with history and deep meaning, but until now, it has not been the most intuitive system for the modern reader to pick up and work with without much in depth study.  “The Voice of the Trees, A Celtic Ogham Oracle” is  designed to bring this ancient letter system into a more spontaneous and accessible form for the modern reader.  Each illustration is magical and expressive enough to be read easily, not just pictures of the tree and symbol, these cards visually tell a story. The images on each card include the Ogham stave and associated tree, within an in-depth illustration of the divinatory meaning, in order to trigger the feel and meaning of the card for the reader. 

     I have a magical and artistic practice of using herb infusions in my art that correspond with the subject, and this deck is no exception.  I obtained botanical samples of each of the trees in the Ogham and used an infusion of each tree in the paint.  This process helps me to connect spiritually with my subject and gain insight and inspiration.  I have done this with the intention that the vibration of each tree will be a part of each card printed from the magical original.  This process makes this oracle a powerful divination deck, ritual, and meditation tool for any magical practitioner.