The Return of Archetypes in Modern Visual Language
Tarot has never disappeared from cultural imagination, but today it appears with renewed intensity in contemporary art. Its archetypes speak in symbols rather than stories, using faces, shadows, and emotional atmospheres to express states of being. In my surreal portraits, I often turn toward this same symbolic vocabulary. The layered expressions, mirrored faces, and glowing botanicals are not literal references to tarot imagery, yet they resonate with its emotional grammar. The figures become embodiments of inner worlds, holding the same depth and ambiguity found in the Major Arcana.
Multi-Faced Portraits and the Energy of The Moon
The Moon in tarot is not about clarity; it is about the subconscious, intuition, and the fragile boundary between truth and illusion. My multi-faced portraits capture this liminal feeling. When a face duplicates, shifts direction, or holds two expressions at once, it reflects the emotional duality that The Moon embodies. These portraits mirror the tension between what we show and what remains hidden. Their soft distortions and quiet gazes evoke a dreamlike unease, the sensation of recognizing a part of oneself that usually stays in shadow. The surreal doubling becomes a psychological landscape, inviting viewers to explore their own layered perceptions.
The Lovers and the Symbolism of Inner Dialogue
Although The Lovers is often interpreted as a card of romance, its deeper meaning concerns choice, reflection, and the inner dialogue between opposing parts of the self. Many of my mirrored or intertwined figures embody this idea. The closeness between two faces—sometimes nearly identical, sometimes subtly different—suggests a moment of internal negotiation. These portraits convey a sense of “being two things at once,” a hallmark of The Lovers’ energy. Through soft horror botanicals, gentle symmetry, and glowing colour boundaries, the artwork becomes a visual representation of alignment, tension, and the merging of inner voices.
Judgement and the Transformation of Self
Judgement in tarot represents awakening, rebirth, and the recognition of one’s own truth. Portraits featuring multiple faces emerging from a single form or rising from layered botanical structures often echo this archetype. Their composition suggests the moment when different versions of the self align and rise together. The glow within their cheeks or the rings of luminous seeds around them resemble the spiritual call associated with the card. The stillness in their expressions is not passive; it carries a sense of transition, as if the figure stands on the threshold of inner clarity.
Shadows, Symbols, and the Emotional Depth of the Tarot
Tarot builds meaning through its symbolic details—phases of the moon, mirrored forms, spirals, flowers, serpents. In my artwork, similar motifs appear not as illustrations, but as intuitive extensions of emotion. A botanical tendril may act as a subconscious thread. A mirrored petal may hint at a choice. A shifting shadow around the face may speak to fear or awakening. These elements lend the portraits a layered emotional presence, echoing the way tarot cards accumulate meaning through pattern and symbolism.
Contemporary Surrealism and the Inner World
Surreal art naturally gravitates toward tarot because both speak in metaphors of the psyche. My portraits aim to visualize the subtle currents that exist beneath the surface: uncertainty, longing, transformation, intuition. The faces become emotional archetypes rather than individuals. Their luminous centres and soft distortions reflect not reality but internal truth. They create the same contemplative space that tarot offers—a moment to pause, interpret, and sense what lies within.
Archetypes Reimagined Through a Personal Lens
Although my work is not designed as tarot illustration, it aligns with tarot’s purpose: revealing emotional undercurrents and giving viewers a symbolic language for their inner worlds. Through mirrored figures, surreal botanicals, and intuitive colourwork, the portraits transform archetypes into contemporary expressions of psychological depth. They suggest that every person carries multiple selves, hidden meanings, and quiet transformations—much like a tarot spread read through the lens of personal experience.
