![]() Stieglitz showed her work again and again, even photographing it himself, creating a portfolio of platinum prints he sold commercially for his own benefit. The show opened in the winter of 1907 and was the most popular exhibit in the gallery’s two-year history. ![]() But Stieglitz thought such work could help illuminate photography’s “possibilities and limitations,” so he agreed. That she was also interested in Art Nouveau aesthetics is evident at a glance.Īt the age of twenty-eight, she approached photographer Alfred Stieglitz, wanting her paintings and drawings to be hung in his Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which until that point had only exhibited photography. Known as Pixie to her friends, Colman Smith had artistic influences that included the heavily metaphorical philosophy of the Symbolists, which served her well in creating a tarot deck, layered as it is with glyphs and mystery. Moving as she did between Britain, the United States, and Jamaica, her frequent images of ships and the rolling, blue ocean feel personal. Her mother was Jamaican, her father a white American. It is the deck that I first learned tarot on, upwards of thirty years ago, but I didn’t know very much about its female creator, whose name is conspicuously absent from the box (grrr).Ĭolman Smith was an Aquarius, born in Britain on February 16, 1878. The yellow-edged box, the plaid backside. ![]() Colman Smith created the Rider-Waite tarot deck, the classic deck that pops up in every TV show, movie, or photo shoot with a tarot scene in it. You might not recognize her name, but I promise you know her art, have likely interacted with it, might even own it. Johnson.īut who is that mischievous-looking woman, hair piled atop her head, beads piled onto her satiny, leg-of-mutton blouse? Dramatic earrings, arms folded, one eyebrow slightly cocked. It reads FAMOUS WITCHES in a fancy blue font, above photos of famously witchy women like musicians Stevie Nicks and Cher (cuddling a black cat), artists Yayoi Kusama and Frida Kahlo, and transgender activist Marsha P. I own a T-shirt that gets a lot of compliments. Article from the Autumn Issue #40 – Subscribe or Buy Issue
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