Pen

Penelope Cline's Pen Tarot is twenty-three cards of obsession honored: the twenty-two majors plus one addition, The Artist, drawn from life in pen, colored ink and crayon, the deck the review describes as inspiration channeled into skilled illustration. The extra card is the tell; adding The Artist to the arcana declares the maker's presence inside the work, the deck acknowledging its own hand, which majors-only personal decks rarely have the wit to do. Drawn-from-life is the other distinction: these arcana posed, real bodies holding the offices, which grounds hand-drawn work in observation the purely imagined lacks. Pen and crayon keep the surfaces intimate, sketchbook-warm. It suits collectors of artist's majors, life-drawing appreciators, readers who like decks that know they were made, and admirers of the small addition that changes a structure's meaning. The Artist card alone, a twenty-third trump for the one who draws, earns the deck its place in the catalog's gallery of personal visions.