Kitty Willows Tarot
by Sushila Burgess

The Kitty Willows Tarot comes partly from my Hinted Tarot colouring book and partly from my 2013 painting "The Darling Buds of February" in which little cat heads grow out of the bare branches of willow trees, with snowdrops down below. These "kitty willows" provide the back design and the borders of the front of the cards. (Really I wanted to use the traditional name for these first signs of spring, but alas, feared being penalised by search engines.)

After I had drawn the black-and-white outlines of the Hinted Tarot colouring book, I hand-made a classic-size deck by colouring in the Hinted Tarot designs using water-colour pencil. I sold that original deck on Etsy, but kept scanned copies of the full-colour designs for future use.

I wanted to adapt my hand-made classic-size deck for printing in poker size, because the smaller poker-size format is less expensive. However, that meant adding a border to change the shape of the cards.

A plain border sounded a bit boring, so I looked through some of my earlier artwork to find a design that I could re-use. It was a revelation to see "The Darling Buds of February": so light-hearted and full of laughter. In contrast, how sombre my mood has been in recent years, naturally enough, considering all that has happened. But I found it a joy to rediscover some artwork from earlier days, and I hope some of that joy will be apparent in the design of this latest deck.

The Kitty Willows Tarot is loosely based on Rider-Waite-Smith, but I do try to avoid the sexism of many of the original images of the Minor Arcana in particular. My female characters tend to have a more active role than in RWS, and you will not find a blindfold anywhere in any of my decks.