By Terri Clement
Dazzling Artwork – Brilliant Artist
With the fascinating use of light and shadow, a fan of his work can spot a Ciro Marchetti deck from across a crowded room!
Quick with a gracious smile and a joke, Ciro Marchetti is one of the friendliest folks in the world of Tarot. Ciro is the award winning artist behind the wildly popular decks: The Gilded Tarot, Tarot of Dreams, Legacy of the Divine, The Oracle of Visions and The Gilded Tarot Royale. He also has created an interactive iPhone app which uses the Legacy of the Divine. Marchetti and his beautiful wife Maria have also fashioned many Tarot related accessories such as: spread cloths, wall art, Tarot boxes, messenger bags and more. You can also find his non-tarot related designs on cross-stitch patterns and puzzles.
Ciro hails from the UK. He studied art in London. From there he worked in Europe and South America before settling in Miami, Florida, where he opened a design agency. He also gives workshops and lectures at Fort Lauderdale Art Institute.
Before creating The Gilded Tarot, Ciro sent some samples to various publishers including Llewellyn, in hopes of producing book covers, calendars and etc. His work was passed on to the “Divinations” department at Llewellyn. Concerned over his lack of experience with the Tarot, thankfully he was encouraged by Barbara Moore to move forward.
To get a better sense of who Ciro Marchetti is we asked him a couple of questions:
TR: Outside of Tarot how do you enjoy spending your free time (hobbies)?
Ciro: I work on many illustrations which all have a general common denominator of fantasy and mystical content, but certainly over the last few years a large percentage of my time has been devoted to the various Tarot and oracle decks. I am a true workaholic and if nothing else existed to distract me, I could (and often have) worked for 18 hours straight, with little to eat and minimal breaks. This was taking a toll on my physical health so my wife nagged me into doing some sort of exercise. Well, going to gyms and jogging bore the hell out of me, but I did take up tennis about four years ago and that's done the trick, it appeals to my competitive nature and gets me away from the computer and out of the house three to four times a week.
TR: You and your wife seem to have a great relationship, how do you keep it fresh?
Ciro: Maria and I get on so well, because she realizes just how lucky she is, how she's crazy about me, my looks, my six pack muscles....my modesty.... the usual stuff. ;)
But, seriously…
Yes we do, we've been together for about 18 year now. We in fact are very different in many ways, coming from different cultural back grounds, our tastes in music, movies, food vary. But we're on the same page on the important issues, family values, how we bring up our shared kids (one each from our previous marriages) and our respect for each other as partners. We work together from our home but we give each ample space. From another room my wife will be handling the shipping of our products or sewing our reading cloths and watching a sappy movie while I will be working from my studio probably watching English Football. Along with other activities we somehow manage to remain occupied independently of each other that by the end of the day we can have meal together and have something to talk about…But I think the real glue that binds us together is humor. On an almost daily basis I make her laugh out loud by something I say or do, even if it’s just the retelling of some old joke.
TR: What upcoming projects do you have in mind that our readers might be interested in?
Ciro: I'm working on a Lenormand deck and Rana George who has vast experience working with these decks will be helping by providing feedback and guidance. At this point we’re not sure what level of collaboration there will be, but there will be some. The idea of Lenormand deck was first suggested to me by Mary Greer over a year ago, but at that time I wanted to concentrate on the new Gilded Royale. However, with that now complete I was free to consider new project ideas. While attending the recent Readers Studio event in New York, it became obvious that there was a lot of interest in the Lenormand system. While eavesdropping on Rana explaining the concepts to an enthusiastic audience and seeing the cards displayed in their Grand Tableux, I realized that I had the components of many of the cards already done. Back home I had a variety of flowers, dogs, ships, keys, trees, bears … you name it, that I'd produced over the years. Some had been incorporated in previous projects, but many others had been shelved. It was like a deck had been sitting there, each card waiting for me to recognize them for what they were and what role they could play. The challenge will be similar to that of my previous decks, to add something new and personal to the project while maintaining a connection to the tradition and history of Lenormand. Nevertheless it should be an easier and shorter process than the others.
I'm also considering the production of animated e-books for play back on iPads. The use of multimedia is not new to me and I have used it in some connected way with previous decks in the form of short movies iPhone apps and my retrospective Tarot journey movie* I think the use of animation, interactivity, music and voice over narration is an intriguing and compelling way to teach Tarot. For example, pointing out specific symbolism in any given cards, connection between cards by having those points stand out visually in some way (by movement or change of color etc) would be a very effective. Not to mention the inclusion of hyperlinks to external resources on the internet that would provide additional reference to whatever topic was being highlighted. Such a project (or projects) represent a real challenge as it involves a heavy learning curve of the various software applications required to bring it all together. I think the investment of time necessary to make it all happen may be prohibitive to the major publishers, as they would have to pay third party fees for that production and I'm not sure the potential market would be big enough to take the risk. But as a self published project of some kind…. I'm chewing it over.
Check out all the cool Ciro Marchetti works at www.ciromarchetti.com!
And, if you have 12 minutes to spare with a cup of coffee or tea check out this retrospective on YouTube: