14/05/2022
Pamela Colman Smith, also nicknamed Pixie, was the woman, who was (until recent history was the relatively unknown) artist behind the beautiful images of the world famous, Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck (1909). Smith was quirky, talented and unconventional - her creative mind was never fully celebrated in her life time. She was an artist, illustrator, writer, publisher and mystic. Smith, like so many other women artists of the same era, was most certainly the victim of marginalization due to her gender.
Over the centuries, there have been many women in history who fell into obscurity, overshadowed, sometimes ostracized and rarely taken seriously by both their male counter-parts and society at large. The art world use to be no exception. And yes, the woman who inked and painted the illustrations of the world's most famous tarot deck, definitely fell into that category.
Born to American parents in London, Smith spent a period of her childhood in Jamaica and styled herself in West Indies fashion, leading to conflicting reports over whether or not she was biracial, some articles state her mother was Jamaican, and others that she was the sister of the famous artist Samuel Colman and that her family originated in the USA.
At 15, Smith began her studies in painting, drawing and composition at the Pratt Institute in New York, but she left without a degree to avoid the influence of other artists. After her time at Pratt, Smith returned to Jamaica to care for her mother, who passed away in 1896, and remained there to help her father manage their estate.
Smith also shared her life (and some business interests) with a woman called Vera Lake, but as was the case at the time, they would have been known as spinsters or companions, and as far as I am aware, she wouldn't have been "out" back then, but it didn't stop her from being referred to by todays gay community as a "q***r icon" - now that's a true badge of honour I would say.
Smith was 31 years old and had already exhibited paintings in the New York gallery when she was approached in London by British poet Arthur Edward Waite. The two were known to each other from a secret society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where Waite was the grand master. The group borrowed ideas from freemasonry and the Kabbalah and had a spiritual belief system based on magic, metaphysics, paranormal and occult activities.
The two had so much in common and soon set about the project, with Waite commisioning Smith for a small flat fee. There are 78 cards in a Rider-Waite Smith deck, split into two groups called the Major and Minor Arcana (let's call them the big league and little league). The Major Arcana features the big deal cards such as The Star, The Lovers and The Hanged Man. The Minor Arcana more closely resembles a pack of playing cards (which is how tarot originated in the 15th century). Waite had studied (and published extensively on so many ancient texts). He approached Smith with his Major Arcana ideas, but the Minor's were all her own.
The minors are divided into numbered and face cards in four suits: wands, swords, cups and pentacles. Smith went above and beyond her brief, and truly made these minor cards come alive, with extraordinary illustrations, as opposed to previous decks that only decorated the majors.
Smith completed all 78 images from her Chelsea studio in London, using watercolours and ink. Her influences for the imagery included my own favourite group of Victorian painters - Pre-Raphaelites, who produced luminous images with stunning detail, indulgent ink illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, the ornamental details of Art Nouveau, and the saturated color blocking of traditional Japanese woodblock prints. The latter of which she seemed to be quite taken with in some of her paintings including "The Wave"
Smith stopped producing art just three years after the Rider-Waite deck was published. Like many before her, she'd struggled to make a living. Then she completely changed her life. Smith walked away from London, high society, her art and mystic interests and converted to a life of Catholicism. She inherited some money, bought a house in Cornwall - and she and her partner Lake, made a living by renting it out to priests. Smith also got involved with the women's suffrage movement as well as the Red Cross.
I am not interested in debating the things other articles have discussed such as, her colour or sexuality or even her choices in religion. Smith is firmly on my list of inspirational spiritual heroines. For me she brings together all that I hold and embrace as sacred;
Freedom of expression and the right to be different. The freedom to select our own version of spirituality or science and walk a path of eternal discovery.
The right not to be marginalised, to have a voice and be seen, the right to have an opinion that counts.
The desire to have a life that stands for something, that leaves a legacy, makes an imprint or makes a difference to others.
Art, Light and most of all LOVE.
P.S. By the way, Smith was only ever paid a small, one-off fee for her work and this deck continues to sell millions of copies each year. So the next time you refer to it, please don't side-line her by dropping the Smith, it's not just the Rider-Waite deck, its the Rider-Waite Smith deck - or better still, the Smith-Waite Deck...
Story, copyright, the author: Charlie Lee Daniels
