Golden

The record

The long awaited Golden Tarot, by Australian artist Kat Black, is now in print. Ever since I first saw samples on Kat Black's website, I've been looking forward to its publication. Lengthy anticipation can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations but in this case, my sky-high expectations were met, and even surpassed. The cards of the Golden Tarot have been collaged entirely from artwork of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance period, and in symbolism are fundamentally based on the Rider-Waite. The cards have similarities to the general layout and major symbolic elements of Colman-Smith’s drawings, but have been re-interpreted in the totally different artistic style of late medieval and early Renaissance. A great deal of work and skill went into choosing and blending the images from 13th to 16th century paintings to create Tarot scenes that look whole, and the overall effect is amazing. I knew that cards were composites, collages, but when riffling through them I soon forgot, as the elements naturally flowed into one another without abrupt edges, colour or lighting changes. (On first glance at the Fool, I thought it was one image. The source notes say it is actually four: t

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