finishing the joie de vivre

The art for the Joie de Vivre, as of today, is officially complete.

 I know, I know. I should be tossing flower petals and dancing around, as I so often apparently do. Believe me, the flower petals and dancing are on the horizon. But my initial reaction to completing a long and tedious nearly two-year project left me in a state of mental exhaustion.

Throughout the past year, I attempted to delve into other involved art projects alongside Joie de Vivre. But it seemed that the only thing I could focus on creatively outside of Joie de Vivre was to compose music. You see, once I felt 'possessed' by the stream of tarot-deck-creating consciousness, there really was no escape until completion. For some reason -- and it may be due to an alternate creative expression -- the writing of songs was the only way in which I could refocus and 'see' clearly again.

The Joie de Vivre tarot: we're talking 78-deck images from scratch, immediately after the creation of my Paulina Tarot. However, this was something I positively needed to do; it was a chapter in my life I needed to experience, to journey through, and to put out into the world. Finishing this, to me, is akin to being released from an iron ball and chain. But what a worthwhile and exciting journey it's been.

I'm not out of the woods yet though, as I still have the little booklet text to complete. But now that the art is done, and now that I have the card files ready to send off to my publishers, they can begin production work, which then turns into months-and-months worth of proof work, printing work and distribution. But I'll keep you posted on a release date.

The next couple of days will be dedicated to finally updating the JDV website with all the new cards. Thank you to everyone who traveled the Joie de Vivre path with me for the past two years.  I put the Joie de Vivre out into the world, with love.