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Utah Tarot Project ~ Maninni Too!!

Here is the Original E-Mail that started this project: The second round of the Utah Maninni Tarot Project is  beginning NOW! Let's see if we can make this one even better  than the last one was (and that will be difficult folks! It  rocked!)

"Maninni" is Italian for "many little hands". A  Maninni Tarot deck is one in which different people do a  card, or a couple of cards, each. It's a collaborative effort. One  takes a theme, and one runs with it. The cards are as  different as the originators, linked together only by the  theme.

I have a vision of another deck as spiffy as the last one we  made, with a tighter theme, making it hard to do but fun. The  theme is not just "Utah culture", as was the last one, but  "PAGAN Utah culture." We've been doing semi-public to  totally public Pagan stuff in this area for almost 20 years,  folks. We have a culture. We ARE a culture. And the goal is to  use your imagination and any media form you like, to create a  card that exemplifies your own ideas of Pagan Utah culture, and can also be used to illustrate the particular Tarot idea  behind the card you are doing.

How? Well. Let me know by e-mail that you want to participate. I have the OLD Maninni deck here, right by my  computer. It is well-shuffled, and well-blessed. As soon as I  get your e-mail, I will draw for you and let you know what  card you are doing. Anyone may do one, two or a maximum of  three cards. No one may do more than one card in a single  suit or more than one court card or Major Arcana card, so if I  happen to draw more than one of them for a single person, I  will draw again. You may use ANY media you like, to create  your card, but you need to get hold of a digital camera or a  scanner so that you can send it to me as a .jpg. Deadline for  my receiving your card is the Fourth of July, so I have time to  assemble the booklet and print the cards before PPD. We will  talk about cost to get the copies done as soon as I find the  paperwork from the last one so I can remember how Daniel  did that...I do recall it wasn't expensive for anyone. My goal is  to have decks ready by PPD to sell, as a fundraiser, half to go  to the Salt Lake Pagan Pride Co-Operative, and half to go to  our charities.

And to go on:

In order for this to be possible you need to use ALL ORIGINAL artwork. You can sketch, collage, take a photo, draw with crayon or pencil, create digital artwork, paint, or whatever else you want to do. You CAN NOT:
1. Scan a tarot card from one of your decks and tweak it, unless it is COMPLETELY UNRECOGNIZABLE when you are finished. And that is unlikely to be possible. Most professionally done decks are unique and too distinctive to disguise. Look at other decks for inspiration, but start from scratch. Your card will turn out better if it is all your own work.
2. Capture art off the web and use it on your card, unless  you have WRITTEN PERMISSION and a ROYALTY RELEASE from its author. If the author of the artwork is not specified, you can't use it.
3. Cut and paste any images from a published source, unless you  know the image is over 100 years old. The Mona Lisa is OK. A photo from Time Magazine of 1998 is NOT. Of course, you can use bits and pieces of photos and pictures from magazines, if they are pictures of, say, trees or crowds of people or stones or water or the like, or things that are unidentifiable as being linked to a particular photo or painting. Just not photos of artwork that is not in the public domain, or copyrighted photos that are themselves artwork. Unless, of course, you took them yourself or your brother-in-law gave you WRITTEN permission to use them.
4. Use images from photos you took yourself that have recognizable pictures of community members in them, unless you have WRITTEN PERMISSION from each person whose face someone could recognize to use their photo.

Here is some info that will help you with the nuts and bolts of creating your card:

1. Don't make your art too small. Stretching digital images will pixilate them, and I can reduce anything you send me. Ideal size is an image that is 900 x 1500 pixels, or a hardcopy image no smaller than 3x5 inches that is scanned in at 300 dpi or better. (If you are not sure what I just said or don't know how to scan in your 8x10 photo at the right resolution, call us.) Try to avoid square images or landscaped images...make something that fits on the standard shape of a playing card. I will reduce your image to an index-card sized image reproduced at 300 dpi or better.
2. Use an Exacto knife rather than a scissors for cutting out collage art. No raggedy edges.
3. If your image is challenging in shape or density, make a copy of it to cut out, so you won't lose your original if you cut it wrong.
4. If you are taking photos, set your camera to its highest resolution and use your closeup tool. Much better quality.
5. Most postcards are NOT covered by copyright. You can use them all you like.
6. Permanent markers rather than watercolor markers will reproduce your colors with more intensity. Watercolor markers have a wider range of shades available. Colored pencils reproduce softly (blurred, fuzzy lines) and you may actually see white space between your lines of color if you do not fill in the image densely. If you are using watercolor paints, do NOT use watercolor paper. The texture will show through on your digital image. Use regular thick white construction paper.
7. If you are painting in watercolors, use a brayer (bray tool) to FLATTEN the picture before you scan it in, because those little ripples and bumps watercolor leaves on the paper make shadows on your image. You can also use the brayer to remove minute air bubbles from your collage pieces you have glued on.
7. PLEASE put the name of your card ON the card face. It is not always as easy as you think to tell, especially since there is no common character to the images.

Everyone who participates in the project will receive one deck for only the cost of copies. There will also be a booklet that  I will send you online as a text file. If you want the hardcopy of the booklet there will be a small cost in addition to the copying cost of your deck. For inclusion in the booklet, please send with each card:

Here is an example from Daniel Webster Christiansen, the facilitator of the Utah Maninni One Project:

XIX - The Sun

Artist:  Daniel Webster Christensen
Media:  Photography edited in Photo shop.  Original photo taken by the lovely and talented Amber McKee of me at the Sun Tunnels.  For those who have never been there, the tunnels are a piece of “earth art” created by Nancy Holt, in the west desert of Utah.  They are four large concrete tubes arranged for the Summer and Winter solstices.  In other words, they are a Utah Stonehenge.  This picture was taken at sunrise on the Summer Solstice, 1999.

Definition:   The sun, the sol invictus, rises triumphantly in the east.  On this day, the Summer Solstice, he is at his height of power.  This is a card of accomplishment and success and of material happiness.  It can also represent both the emotional and the meteorologic warmth of a situation or a relationship.

Reversed: But be warned!  The sun has other qualities as well.  It obscures the stars (symbolic of hope) and, because it is at Summer Solstice, this means the days will only get shorter from there.  Too much sun can be very harmful to your health (without SPF 2 billion) and at the same time, too little sun can bring about Seasonal Affective Disorder – a seasonal depression.

The images from the Maninni One deck are online at the links at the top of this page. Go take a look. I promise you will be delighted, astonished, amazed and gratified by the talent of this community...so..... Can we do it again? I definitely think so! new people, some old people, and lots of new ideas. What a potential for community interaction and creativity! Good luck, have fun, and let's DO this!

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