...Finished...

22 cards, 0 to 21.

22 canvases plotted, prepped and painted.

2 years, 2 cities, countless hours.

Thousands of songs played.

Well over a hundred cups of tea.

One brush used to write the text on each canvas. One brush from the very first: The High Priestess, to the last three: The Chariot, Justice and The Wheel of Fortune.

The brush is now becoming frayed, too large to use, but it made it through all 22 canvases and today I used it to complete what has been one of the greatest undertakings of my entire life. When that last stroke was applied the significance of what I'd accomplished overwhelmed me. I cannot say that I did this on my own. When one completes a novel there is a page of acknowledgments. Take each of these 22 paintings as a chapter. I would like to credit the completed work to so many different people. I will do my best...

In no particular order:

Thank you to...

Julian for taking National Geographic videos out of the library with great regularity when I was young. My resulting passion, love and knowledge for animals has been instrumental in choosing the subjects for my cards.

Nick for being an artist I could look up to.

Shannon for always telling me my artwork was something to be shared with the world and for being the inspiration behind the Strength card.

Clare for giving me space in which to work, making me tea, tolerating paint on the carpet, picking up supplies for me, finding a source for canvases in London and loving me unconditionally, even when I'm being an entirely unreasonable tortured artist.

Kendra for providing me with the inspiration for Temperance and to her and Mara for feeding my imagination throughout childhood.

Cielia for replying to every blog update on a complete piece and for a thousand paper cranes, which showed me even seemingly impossible tasks can be done if you give them time.

To wee three kitties for helping to de-stress me with healing cuddles involving a lot of purring.

To everyone who reads my blog, follows me on Twitter and 'likes' my page on Facebook for helping me choose which card to do next and narrow down which animal to use for each.

To the Elevensestime crowd for asking how I'm progressing.

To everyone who has purchased a print, sculpture, magnet or original canvas from me, thus helping me pay for imaging, brushes, pens, canvases, tape, pallets, pencils, erasers and my website.

To so very many musicians for doing what they do best and listening to their muse so they could provide a fantastic soundtrack to my painting.

Christine for not letting me make excuses and for helping me figure out that I'm a Buddhist.

To Janet for giving me my very first tarot deck, which inspired me to make one of my own.

~Thank You~

And yes, you will see the final three completed pieces in the next three blog entries I publish.