I am the Girl with the Octopus Heart, or rather Hearts, three to be precise. The same pulsing number as that of my eight-armed namesake. That’s right. Misty Monster — one girl, three hearts, eight arms. One heart belongs to art. Another belongs to writing. The last is lost to the gloaming – that soft glowing light of twilight. All three hearts work together to weave words, paint, and magic into a series of 78 fantasy paintings. With 76 out of 78 paintings completed to date, each painting has its own imagery, symbolism, and story as it is turned into a unique card for the Morbidly Adorable Tarot Deck.
My eight curious arms feed my hearts as they taste everything around me to distill lessons from personal fairy tales, pull wisdom from my conversations with praying mantises, and snatch at omens tossed by ghosts in the periphery. My arms dip paintbrushes into pure uncut dreams to create works of art from a place where beauty borders on strange and the strange is beautiful.
As a Painter, Storyteller, Tarot Artist, and Raindrop Astronaut dedicated to spreading the Gospel of the Morbidly Adorable*, I love all things ensorcelled and ethereal, sweet and spooky, morbid and adorable! I am inspired by big eyes, fairy tales, French Rococo, the traditions of El Dia de Los Muertos, skeletons that smile, and stuffed animals that frown.
When I first started painting this beautiful and strange Morbidly Adorable Tarot Deck for U.S. Games Systems, I thought it would be a fun project I could knock out in two or three years. I never imagined my life would still be in service to the tarot fifteen years later. With a rich history spanning centuries and cultures, it still captures the modern imagination. So much of my life has informed this deck. From my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting to my Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, from the dozen or so countries that I have traveled ranging from Nepal to Italy to China, not one experience in my life, good or bad, has been wasted. The tarot has absorbed them all.
*A Morbidly Adorable may refer to someone who walks through life feeling a little haunted but always enchanted; it may be a memento from one’s life that evokes memories of sweet mischief; or even just as it sounds — a Morbidly Adorable might be the furriest little critter with the most morbidly obese eyes you’ve ever seen. My dark little dearies and I encourage the care and feeding of your own Morbidly Adorable.