Artist Statement
A new twist on an ancient art: these pieces explore the timeless archetypes of Tarot with bold, kaleidoscopic collage landscapes. Each collage is made up of dozens of tiny pieces, hand-selected from an ever-growing library of found materials, and then carefully and consciously combined together.
Tarot is an artform that transcends time and place, an unending storyline of archetypes and symbols that have lived countless lives, shapeshifting and adapting, but never losing their essential form. They reflect the cycles, structures, and lessons that we all go through over the course of our individual lives. Each card shows us that, although the details may be different, we are all sharing the same reality, viewing the collective human condition through the lens of our own perspectives and experiences.
The inherently archetypal nature of the Tarot has allowed artists to revisit and reinvent the symbolism of each card in thousands of ways, each interpretation following the same format of the deck before it, but taking on the unique perspective and expression of their creator. My aim is the same as these artists before me; these pieces are meant to showcase both the immortal, unchanging nature of Tarot–and in parallel, of our humanity—as well as the aspect that shifts and transforms. Each piece is familiar, and yet, something you have never seen before.
My use of collage to portray these archetypes intentionally echoes this fundamental duality; it allows my pieces to be unique iterations, while still being recycled and reassembled, each made out of common materials scattered in fragments throughout the world. More importantly, it showcases the part of Tarot that weaves itself throughout our daily lives. These symbols are not solely contained within the cards; they are everywhere. I find them in magazine racks and recycle bins, junk mail and children’s books.
Artist Bio
Hannah Freitag resides among pine trees and rain clouds in the Pacific Northwest with her partner and their chatty cat. The variety of landscapes that surround her heavily inspire her art, as do all the plants and animals that call them home. She is a chaser of dreams, a multidisciplinary creative, and a lifelong student of the Divine. She has been interested in art since childhood and has a varied background of experience to draw from in both digital and analog disciplines. Her favorite mediums include collage, acrylic painting, and creative writing.
Hannah’s art is informed by a myriad of seemingly disparate personal interests; psychology, spirituality, sociology, physics, mythology, and nature, just to name a few. She also draws heavily on her life experience and hopes to inspire the same healing she has gone through in others; particularly within the realm of recovering from trauma and rediscovering the self through introspection. Following the same process as she does with her collages, Hannah practices breaking these interests and experiences apart into pieces, and then bringing them back together in a new form.
Hannah’s faith in the guidance of the Universe is a huge factor in her art career and she incorporates a daily spiritual practice into her creative routines. Her art is based heavily around symbolic languages that have aided others’ spiritual journeys through centuries. Currently, she is working with the archetypes and format of the Tarot, a divinatory practice that she has personally used in her own spiritual evolution. Each of her art pieces uses both ancient and modern symbolism to represent phases of the spiritual journey, and are meant to resonate on a deep and intrinsic level.
