Charlie (they/them) identifies as a non-binary spirit in a human dwelling who’s homosexual for different queers! They’re additionally a white, able-bodied particular person dwelling with advanced PTSD. Charlie is the artist and creator behind the Fifth Spirit Tarot.
In their very own phrases…
I’m a artistic author and digital artist who didn’t think about myself an artist till I began to create my first tarot deck, Fifth Spirit Tarot. I don’t have any artwork coaching to talk of, apart from the “artwork” courses that we had been all required to soak up college as children (the type the place you finger-paint and make lumpy clay sculptures of your canine), so I actually don’t know learn how to put paint on canvas. However I’ve at all times naturally been in a position to attract. I’ve been doodling little pen-and-ink drawings in my journals or on birthday playing cards for my family and friends for so long as I can keep in mind, however that was the extent of my artwork portfolio earlier than 2019, after I messed round in a drawing app one evening and by accident began a Tarot deck. Having the ability to illustrate digitally was a recreation changer that made artwork creation accessible for me. I exploit an iPad with Procreate and draw immediately on the display screen with a stylus, so each line and brush stroke is “drawn by hand,” so to talk, however digitally. And I don’t have to attend for paint to dry! Now, my artwork is my primary livelihood via the gross sales of Fifth Spirit Tarot and my different creations, supplemented by the Tarot courses I train.
Along with being an artist, I’ve been a author since I might maintain a pencil. The written phrase was my first artwork and my old flame, and it’s a life-long love. I’ve had various quick fiction tales revealed in literary journals and anthologies, and I acquired my MFA in Inventive Writing from Vanderbilt College. In recent times, my focus has shifted from writing fiction to writing about Tarot, though I believe it’s truthful to say that I do it with a writerly, dare I say poetic, bent. I’m persevering with to put in writing about Tarot and am at present engaged on a e-book about non-binary Tarot that works to evolve the playing cards and the best way we learn them past all binaries, gender and in any other case.
As a queer and non-binary one who’s married to a transgender man, my identities definitely inform my artwork as a result of they’re an intrinsic a part of who am I and the way I understand and expertise the world. Queer and trans illustration had been on the core of my imaginative and prescient for Fifth Spirit Tarot and are central in my persevering with work, and my understanding of Tarot itself relies in my perspective as a queer and non-binary particular person.
I at present reside in Portland, Oregon, on Cowlitz and Clackamas indigenous lands, with my partner and fellow tarot practitioner Aaron Caffee (he/him). However I used to be born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and lived there and elsewhere within the Deep South for 26 years, so my Southern background stays a giant a part of me and my work.
I used to be born useless throughout a twister; I’ve double jointed thumbs, and I’m engaged on a second deck that doesn’t have a reputation but however is an oracle based mostly on the 54-card taking part in card deck (together with 2 jokers that are supposed to be learn with).
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