This interesting deck by Susan Hudes was published in 1995 by U.S. Games Systems. It’s a standard 78-card deck, with Major card names, Court card names, and suit titles all following the Waite-Smith deck. The imagery on the Minors follows Pamela Colman Smith; in fact, in the placement of the figures they seem to actually be based on another Waite-Smith derivative, the Aquarian Tarot by David Palladini. The Major imagery, however, is more original and individualistic.
The art medium is watercolor, which is done very skillfully, the colors glowing like stained glass against the muted backgrounds. The cards also include many added elements such as marbleized paper, world maps, and constellation maps, but they are used discreetly and never overwhelm the picture.
The scenes seem to take place in the same quasi-medieval world as the Waite-Smith, but in this deck there is a decidedly wintry tone, another feature reminiscent of the Aquarian deck. Nobody smiles, nobody is excited or amused. Even in the 6 of Cups, a relatively pleasant card showing two children digging up and arranging cups full of flowers, the child with its face to us is frowning in concentration.
The artist has done some very interesting things with the Majors. Rather than most decks which fill each card with a wealth of symbols, Hudes has chosen to take one particular aspect of each card and plumb the depths of that one aspect, presenting it in a vivid, imaginative way. (tarotpassages.com)
