Ellie Velvet

Artist Bio

Ellie Velvet is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and Tarot reader from Edinburgh, Scotland, whose practice moves between painting, automatic drawing, performance and connection. Her work investigates intuition, archetypes and the possibility of connecting beyond conventional systems of language. Ellie interrogates how Tarot functions as both an artistic medium and a social language and connector: a symbolic structure through which strangers can encounter one another on intimate and often unexpected terms.

Artwork

I create art based on the experience of Tarot. My art is concerned with the connecting power of the Tarot deck - the way that colours, symbols, archetypes can cross over borders, cultures, belief systems and move us to a collective, empathic understanding.

I am intrigued by the automatic art concept, the bridge between creative practice and setting aside the conscious mind. I believe it chimes with the Jungian ideas of Tarot aiding the process of active imagination.

I am particularly inspired by the the automatic artists and movements:

  • Ithell Colquhoun

  • The Japanese Gutai Group

  • Georgiana Houghton

  • Austin Spare

  • Rudolf Steiner

I intend for my Tarot art to have the ability to tap into each of our own child-like glee, confidence, and most importantly non-judgemental curiosity, acceptance and happiness.

Tarot is a way to slow down, be in the moment, and take the time to muse on things in an intuitive way, tapping into the energy that surrounds you, a collaboration between the Tarot reader and the Querent. Tarot artwork enables this, opening up something intuitive and feeling in you. My artwork intends to connect you with your thoughts and feelings in a way that is natural and not word-based, nor doctrine-based but instead something more natural, connecting to your own energy, your own self.

In creating my art, I draw on my experience and perception of my collection of Tarot cards, including the ones that I connect the most with, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the Marseille deck and the Ithell Colqhoun and Leonora Carrington decks

shown here: Japanese Gutai art; Ithell Colquhoun’s Taro as Color (Fulgur Press); Georgiana Houghton art; Leonora Carrington’s Major Arcana Deck. Click on these images for links to websites for more information on these artists and art movements.