A Life Sketches a cover
tarot

A Life Sketches a

Traditional seventy-eight card deck with illustrated contemporary artwork.

by Ricky Seagroves · 2013

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The Canon's read

Tarot Canon's own assessment, written for this catalog.

Ricky Seagroves keeps close to convention here: seventy eight cards, traditional Major Arcana titles, Justice at VIII and Strength at XI, and the standard suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles rather than a renamed system. Contemporary illustration is the one clear departure, artwork sitting inside a structure that otherwise reads as a study in staying within the lines tarot has drawn for a long time. Staying this close to traditional numbering and suit names is a deliberate choice, not a default, since independent-system decks are exactly the ones free to rename or reorder, and Seagroves chose not to. That leaves the artwork to carry whatever is distinctive here, and contemporary is doing a great deal of work as a description, so judgment on that front waits on seeing the cards directly. New readers who want to learn on a structure that matches the reference books, and collectors tracking how illustrators handle the traditional bones, are well served here.

From the archive

An excerpt from a review at the Aeclectic Tarot archive, in the original reviewer's voice.

“A Life Sketches A Tarot” is a 78 card deck formatted along traditional guidelines – traditional titles are used for the Major Arcana, with Justice at VIII and Strength at XI. The suits are entitled Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles...

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