Nemacolin family making mark in tarot cards
Janet, Ron and Noah Boyer of Nemacolin show off several of the images that appear in a new Snowland Tarot Card deck, created as a family effort by the Boyers. Admidst the artwork are some of the books that served as inspiration for Ron’s artwork.
Four of the hand painted images of the Snowland Tarot Card deck, created by husband and wife team, Ron and Janet Boyer.
NEMACOLIN – Take one part insomnia and mix it together with a lack of funds to buy a proper Christmas gift for one’s wife. Add in a large splash of creativity and artistic talent, and you have the start of a husband-and-wife collaboration in tarot card design. When Ron Boyer of Nemacolin found himself without a present for his wife, Janet, on Christmas Eve, inspiration hit as she lie there sleeping. “It was two years ago, and money was tight. I thought, ‘I’ll do a painting,'” Ron said. “I had the Ace of Coins (tarot card) in my mind.” Janet, who has been involved in the world of tarot for several years as an author and Amazon Hall of Fame reviewer, immediately saw the potential of a deck designed by she and Ron. She said the idea of a tarot deck with a winter theme really appealed to her, and she and Ron began to brainstorm ideas that turned into the 78-card Snowland Tarot Card deck. Ron is more than halfway done with the artwork for the complete set, which will be available near Valentine’s Day, he said. Tarot cards have received a “bad rap,” according to Janet. Many people tend to think of them as being somehow evil, she said. However, Janet said there are many therapeutic uses for the cards. It isn’t the cards themselves that provide answers to a person’s questions, she said. The answers someone finds from a tarot reading are inside them from the start. The cards just helped them to focus on specifics to pull them out. Using free association, the cards can work like the Rorschach ink blots to help someone figure out a solution to a problem. Janet used the cards with the Boyers’ son, Noah, 14, when he was younger to help him express how he was feeling. Like a doctor who uses a card with various faces on it for a child to indicate level of pain, tarot cards can be useful in a similar manner, Janet said. “It is a very intuitive tool if you give yourself permission to use it,” Janet said. “Kids are the best readers. As adults, we become jaded, cynical and close-minded. To be able to use the cards, you need to tap into your inner child that has been indoctrinated, bullied and scared out of us. You have to find that wonderment and joy, brotherhood and hope, the feelings that Christmas brings.” Janet and Ron have enjoyed the collaboration. After nearly a decade of Janet doing reviews of tarot decks, writing two books on the subject of the tarot, blogging about it and reading about it, it is a family project. Even Noah got into the act, drawing a card he calls, “Chillaxin,” for the Snowland set. With Ron’s full-time job working at Ammeraal Beltech in Jefferson, the process to complete the deck hasn’t been fast. But Ron said he is having fun with the artistic freedom to create a winter-themed card that in some way still reflects traditional tarot card decks. It is interesting to note that Ron is a completely self-taught artist and was averaging one completed card per day. “It has been an amazing experience for me as an artist. Some of the images have been living in my head for a year. I think in terms of pictures not words,” Ron said. “At times I have been juggling six or seven images in my mind. Once they are out and onto the canvas, it is kind of a release. I haven’t been doing the cards in order, and I like that freedom. I would feel really weighted down without that.” While they were researching for the deck, Ron and Janet came across a gentleman known as W.A. “Snowflake” Bentley. Bentley once looked under a microscope at a snowflake and, noting its beauty, wanted to share what he saw with the world. He began to photograph what he saw and realized that no two snowflakes are alike. By adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, and years of trial and error, in 1885 he successfully photographed a snowflake, the first person to do so. One of the Snowland deck cards depicts Bentley with a handful of flakes drawn to replicate some of 5,000 snowflakes he captured in his lifetime. Ron said they were so taken with Bentley’s story they wanted to pay homage to his work. Other cards give a nod to children’s stories by Hans Christian Andersen and to the story of Balto, the sled dog who braved 53 miles of ice and snow in the Alaskan wilderness to deliver diphtheria medicine. The deck is reflective of a multicultural society as well. It is a diverse set that even includes Ron’s favorite vocalist, Sting, with inference to his song, “Message in a Bottle.” “You don’t have to know tarot to use our deck. There are no scary images or nudity. Our deck is more hopeful than traditional decks,” Janet said. “The old-time decks are not conducive sometimes.” She said the imagery in traditional decks are reflective of the times in which they were created and people sometimes have great difficulty relating to them. That is something she and Ron were very cognizant of when they were doing the brainstorming for their Snowland deck. The hangman became an upside down skier and the chariot a train. After receiving some very positive feedback from those who have seen the initial 22 cards and renderings of others, the Boyers have added some personal touches in the form of bracelets, charms and more companion pieces. For the uninitiated, a deck of tarot cards is composed of 78 cards, each holding a specific meaning related to things such as values, passion, emotions, thought and discovery. The cards are shuffled and spread out, with each position of a card representing a particular aspect of life, such as current emotions or the past. The cards are randomly dealt. To make the cards fit one’s personal circumstances often pushes someone to free associate in a way that is helpful to finding a solution to a problem or situation. Like traditional playing cards, the tarot cards follow four suits, including cups, coins, swords and wands. There are 22 major cards and 56 minor cards with a wide variety of images and emotions attached to them that each alludes to the cards in traditional tarot decks. “You can allow the images to speak to you. In fact, you can even create your own card meanings based on what you feel and see,” Boyer said. “We hope our Snowland deck encourages empowerment, clarity and communication.” For more information on the Snowland Tarot deck or the Boyer’s work, visit www.janetboyer.com.