Inside her Denton home, Emily Pearson flips through three of her digital art designs, which she printed onto computer paper to see the physical results of her work. She pointed to one paper in particular, explaining how the design in traditional tarot card sets is typically interpreted to mean being “wild and free on a journey.”
“I interpreted that as a wandering bard who would be carefree, singing and have a little companion,” Pearson said.
The bard artwork, along with Pearson’s god and goddess prints, are among three of her completed designs for a set of handmade tarot cards she plans to sell at her magick arts and crafts store, The Seeing Stone. Pearson said she has been taking classes on and studying tarot for about 10 years.
Pearson, the owner of The Seeing Stone, creates and sells fantasy and nature-inspired art. A seeing stone is a path to a magickal or fantastical realm and Pearson said she aims to sprinkle a dash of magick into the lives of others through her work. She uses mediums including paint, digital art, polymer clay and leather to design character art, jewelry and more.
Pearson grew up in New Hampshire and said she took a liking to art at a young age. Her father, Dewey Faulhaber, worked with a variety of artistic mediums and introduced the creative process while she was growing up, often taking her to visit art museums. Faulhaber, a customer service technical specialist who now lives in Paradise, Texas, said Pearson’s interest in art followed her into college.
“In college, she started taking a lot of art classes along with her music [classes],” Faulhaber said. “She studied medieval artwork, did pottery, painting and drawing. I think a lot of it has helped her feel comfortable in creating things.”
Now, Pearson often visits Paradise and uses her father’s in-home workshop to help her create new products for The Seeing Stone.
Pearson worked in a government office until about six months ago. She said she felt unhappy with her job because she lacked the free time she desired to devote to her art. She said this compelled her to quit her full-time job and start her business.
“I’m not sure what turned the tide,” Pearson said. “It was kind of like I hit a wall and was like, ‘I need to get back to what I love to do.’”
Emily Pearson creates her own artworks from leather, paint, polymer clay and digital art. She instills a bit of magick in each of her products and is very inspired by nature. Image by: Adriance Rhoades.
All of Pearson’s products and designs revolve around nature, like leather earrings shaped like leaves, mushroom pendants and polymer clay trees, or contain a magickal element. She said nature and magick go hand in hand and she seeks inspiration for her artwork through fantasy characters from TV shows and movies and avatars from video games.
“I love that feeling of being in the woods and being a part of the woods,” Pearson said. “I have always tried to bring that into my wardrobe, my jewelry and all the things I enjoy. I feel like witchcraft is just another word for connection with nature.”
For her tarot deck in the making, Pearson is collaborating with her college best friend Sonya Blake, a writer from Alberta, Canada. Blake has been reading tarot for 18 years and said she and Pearson decided to re-study tarot together and come up with their own interpretations for each card.
“[Pearson and I] have a lot of shared interests in not just how tarot can be used as a tool for divination but a tool for meditation and also for magickal practice,” Blake said.
Pearson and Blake based their card suits on the elements water, fire, earth and air. They collaborate through Skype sessions to plan out the cards. While Pearson handles the artistic side of the production process, Blake’s part of the project is to write a booklet explaining the meaning behind each card in the deck.
“I was just inspired to create my own [tarot card] deck that was just my own sort of take on the meanings of the cards and trying to provide a different image set that isn’t out there,” Pearson said.
Some of Pearson’s work, including the tarot cards, she designs digitally using the digital illustration app Procreate. It took her a while, she said, to grasp this type of art medium but she enjoys it because it allows artists to layer elements, manipulate lighting and use various brush tools.
“A lot of the digital art I’ve done has been character portraits of people’s original characters from their avatars and video games or their [Dungeons & Dragons] group,” Pearson said. “If they’re into ‘Magic: The Gathering,’ or any of those kinds of roleplaying games, I’ve always been really inspired by that, too.”
Painting has been one of Pearson’s passions for many years now and she said she loves it because of its immediate and tangible results.
“There’s something very satisfying about having something that you have an idea for and putting it down with paint and being able to just feel the canvas and the paint,” Pearson said. “[It’s] the same with polymer clay. I really love working with polymer clay because it’s so receptive.”
Back when she worked full time, Pearson said she only had time to work on small bits and pieces of her digital art. Now, Pearson said she works part time at local massage therapy shop Bodhi Tree Bodyworks so her schedule is more flexible.
While Pearson said she hopes to continue making strides developing The Seeing Stone, her ultimate goal is to make it her main job. She said she wants to offer others a fantasy experience through her products and help them carry magick with them wherever they go.
“If you can have a little piece of magick with you that’s helping you to reconnect with your inner child or your magickal self, it can help in your day-to-day when you’re working in a government or corporate job or slugging through school papers,” Pearson said.
Pearson’s jewelry, art and other products can be found online at theseeingstone.com.
Featured Image: Owner of the Seeing Stone Emily Pearson quit her government job six months ago to pursue her art as a business. She is in the process of making digital art for her own deck of tarot cards. Image by: Adriance Rhoades.
Article Originally Published by on North Texas Daily
Source: North Texas Daily
