The Eye as the Oldest Divination Symbol
Across many mystical traditions, the eye is not simply an organ of sight but a threshold. In tarot, the gaze of a figure often reveals more than the scene around it: it suggests knowledge held within, intuition rising to the surface, or a truth that looks back at the viewer. In my surreal portraits, the eye is treated with this same sacred weight. It expands, multiplies, stretches, or glows from the inside as if it were not seeing the world, but revealing it. These eyes behave less like features of a face and more like portals—openings where emotion, memory, and intuition pass through.
The Gaze That Looks Outward and Inward
One of the striking qualities of tarot imagery is the way figures seem to look both at the reader and into themselves. My portraits pursue that duality. The eyes often carry a stillness that feels deliberate, a gaze that does not seek to perform emotion but to hold it. These are not expressive eyes; they are contemplative ones. They create the feeling that the figure observes the viewer as much as the viewer observes the figure. This reciprocity transforms the gaze into a divinatory encounter, a moment where two interior worlds meet at the centre of the image.
Multiplying the Portal
When a portrait contains multiple eyes—stacked, mirrored, or softly misaligned—the effect is not meant to distort the figure but to expand perception. Multiplicity creates the sensation of several viewpoints existing at once, as if the portrait were witnessing multiple emotional layers simultaneously. This echoes the way tarot often presents dual symbols, mirrored forms, or repeated motifs to express complexity. A multiplied eye in surreal art becomes a widened portal: a gate through which subtler intuitions, contradictions, or layered truths can rise.
Light as an Indicator of Vision
In tarot, light marks revelation—whether it is the star’s radiance, the lantern of the Hermit, or the sun’s overwhelming clarity. In my portraits, the eyes often carry their own internal glow. The light does not fall upon them; it emerges from within, suggesting intuitive knowledge that is already present. This glow transforms the eye into a symbolic beacon, an illuminated threshold where the inner world becomes legible. The brightness surrounding or emanating from the eyes becomes a ritual signal, pointing to the emotional centre of the piece.
Colour and the Emotional Frequency of Sight
Tarot uses colour to mark emotional frequency, and I approach my palette with similar intention. When the eyes glow blue, the portrait leans toward introspection and dream-state perception. When the eyes carry red or pink undertones, the gaze feels infused with desire, urgency, or vulnerability. Green introduces intuitive intelligence and transformation. Gold signals illumination or clarity. In this sense, the eyes behave like tarot cards: they speak in colour long before they speak in symbol.
The Botanical Eye as Living Gateway
In many of my works, eyes blend into botanical forms or emerge from stems, petals, and mirrored organic shapes. This fusion of vision and growth mirrors tarot’s imagery of interconnectedness—where nature, emotion, and intuition operate as one. The botanical eye does not simply see; it senses. It expands perception beyond the visible world and anchors it into instinct and bodily awareness. This blending turns the eye into a living portal, a divinatory gateway that grows from the same emotional ecosystem as the rest of the portrait.
Stillness as a Divinatory Gesture
The quiet, composed expressions in my portraits are intentional. In tarot, revelation rarely arrives through haste; it appears through stillness. My figures hold this same poised energy. Their eyes do not shout; they listen. They create a moment of suspension in which the viewer is invited to pause, soften their attention, and allow meaning to rise without force. The stillness of the gaze becomes a form of divination—a way for the viewer to access something internal through the portrait’s calm.
The Eye as a Contemporary Tarot Card
Although my art does not replicate tarot iconography, the eyes within my portraits function as contemporary tarot symbols. They are sites of intuitive exchange, visual touchpoints where emotional and psychic depth become visible. Each eye is a portal—into the figure, into the viewer, and into the quiet territory between the two. Through glow, multiplicity, colour, and stillness, the eye becomes a divinatory gateway that invites interpretation while offering its own silent clarity.
