Animantia Arcana is an offshoot world-building, character focused, adoptable project. In Latin, it means "secret/mysterious beings," and naturally, the focus of this project are those beings. This project began in 2014 as I saw so many gorgeous characters being created with interesting color schemes, and I found myself having a strong desire to combine interesting visual design with heartfelt stories. My goal for the auctions is to provide people with characters who have meaningful stories that go beyond just an idea in digital space by accompanying their owners in the physical world as a kind of talismanic art. This is an ongoing project, since the owners expand the stories and art in all different directions parallel to my own development of this little universe. It's really a big creative playground for all of us involved!
•To view all past characters and to get future notifications on character sales, click here.
•To view the Masterlist of characters, click here.
•To learn more about the Animantia Arcana world, join our discord by clicking here.
|
 |
 |
Many of the artists I know enjoy the rich symbolism of the tarot, and desire creating their own vision of a deck. Unfortunately, this isn't something that many artists are able to realize. The sheer amount of art that goes into one single deck would cost an insane amount of time and money, so artists often find a way around this. My solution, since collecting decks and cards is one of my hobbies, was to team up with other artists! In this way, I get to have a hand in seeing decks made with themes which wouldn't often be thought of, and also get to have a personal dream come to life.
So far, I've worked on a few different collaborative projects as an artist. Each project has their own set of project managers who give us feedback and direction for our art. They also handle the difficult work of getting the project funded and printed. The communities which are created around each project mean a lot to me, it's a wonderful reminder that independent artists such as myself are not lone islands as we create. Below are the Twitter accounts of each project, where you can view the art contributions plus fancy photos of the actual decks:
•2022 - Loaf Tarot
•2020 - Radiant Scales Tarot
•2019 - Evolution Tarot
|
In 2019, my adoration of cats was once again sparked by my newly adopted cat, Shia. Watching her play, I knew that I wanted to do something similar to the Cumulus Cats, but one of the cloud cat themed commissions stirred an idea… what about enormous nebula clouds? Even better, as a kid, I always loved learning about various space objects, wanting to create epic creatures that represented these objects, this would be the perfect opportunity to do that!
Instead of magnets, these were printed as stickers. Partly this was popular demand, a lot of people found more usefulness in stickers. Also, I finally experienced the rumored "demagnetized fridge" which many people were lamenting to me about, and much to my horror, I no longer was able to enjoy my own magnets. Stickers it is!
•Stickers are still available in the online shop.
•The Nebula Cats project has been archived, click here to view.
|
 |
 |
This is one of the projects which I'm most well known for at the conventions I frequent, Cloud or Cumulus Cats! The idea was sparked by my childhood cat, Pumba, in 2010. One could see sparks in his grey fur whenever pet in the dark, and his purring was reminiscent of a rumbling thunder cloud. They say no one ever intends to become a crazy cat artist, but here we are! The idea spiraled, and in 2012, in honor of Pumba's life, I made another full set of different types of weather. Something even more special happened when people started to see their own cats in the art, and some began to even commission their own cats as clouds. Many heartfelt conversations about the silly antics of our feline friends have been opened up by this project!
The main bulk of these were created as magnets, while a few of them I offered as stickers. The idea was that one could create "cloud scapes" on the fridge, watching our cloud/weather friends change from day to day while they interact with one another. These are more or less retired, so that I can focus on new projects. But I'll never forget the connections and conversations we all had about silly cat antics!
•The Cumulus Cats project has been archived, click here to view.
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 2024 Crystal Carpenter. All rights reserved.
Content on this site may not be used without written consent from the artist.
|
