Playing Card Personas

I love the look of playing cards: the traditional suits, their predecessors (roses, crowns, rings, bells, leaves, hares, acorns…I could go on), and their endless variations and adaptations over the centuries. It is one thing to transform a card into something else entirely, or replace the familiar figures with new entities, scenes or characters (events of the English Civil War, generals during the American Civil War, the non-standard Kings and Queens of every European country, the “dedicated decks” of Salem’s own Parker Brothers), but quite another to bequeath personality to the stiff standardized Kings and Queens of the traditional deck. That artistic feat is impressive to me: so I fell for one of Felix Blommestijn’s cards a few years back, and a collage of Elmo Hood caught my eye immediately when it came across my Instagram feed last week. Now I see that his playing card creations have gone viral over the past few years, but they were quite a discovery for me.The collages are very dear, the prints affordable but apparently sold out everywhere, and I can see why: Hood’s kings, queens and jacks are immediately recognizable, but they are also active (or reactive). Quite the card trick!

@Elmo Hood collages and prints: “Broken Queen”, “Queen of Hearts/Suicide King”, “Loyal”;  “Most Young Kings get their Heads cut off”; “Diamond Heist”; “Cards were Harmed in the Making of this Art”.  More here and here.