Image of the Week: Risk
© D. Yael Bernhard
Here's another image from The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck, a year-long illustration project that I just completed. This was a unique collaboration between author Daven Lee and myself – and the culmination of many years of dedicated work on her part developing diverse practices based on qigong, sacred Daoist sexuality, and other healing and somatic arts, also called The Power of the Yin. Each of the 57 cards imagines an aspect of the inner journey. This is an original oracle deck created with the intention to empower women, as well as the feminine in our society as a whole. I was most honored to be chosen as the illustrator.
As a children's book author/illustrator, I've always loved putting images and words together. For each card, I was given a passage of text which will be printed on the flip side. Each image needs to stand alone, yet relate to all the others. This was one of the most challenging but rewarding aspects of the project. I had to continually vary the subject matter and color palette, yet maintain consistency throughout. Creating all the parts within a cohesive whole is what book design is all about. Though these cards are not bound together, I treated them much like a book.
The text for this card, titled "Risk," begins:
Trust that what you know is enough.
Feel the ground underneath you
and the deep core of your Truth.
I decided to take a small risk as an artist, by not controlling the image. Could I trust a loose, even sloppy brush? I wanted the illustration to have a quality of raw emotion, upwellings of fear and courage. The woman feels this stormy flare, yet she's hopeful, looking up, feeling inspired to go forward. This is not foolish, impulsive risk, but the crystallization of conviction. She holds herself with firm but open hands. A rainbow of possibilities radiates from within her, with cool, calming colors at the center. Her inner eye is focused on her intentions. She's determined but humble, with a purity of vision emanating from within. Perhaps she's only pretending to be confident as she goes forward – I know what this feels like! She continues nonetheless.
It was Daven herself who inspired this image. She is taking a huge risk in creating this deck, walking into totally new territory, publishing and marketing a completely new product, putting her resources and reputation on the line, bringing a longtime vision into form. Her determination is inspiring, yet she was relaxed enough to allow me to try all different ideas in the illustrations, and ways of executing them. The choices in conceptual illustration are infinite. Every one of these cards could have taken a completely different direction. Again and again, I took the risk of trial and error. Because Daven trusted me and herself, it worked.
And in collaborating this way, we were acting in the spirit of the deck itself – the power of the yin, or feminine, which is intuitive, receptive, responsive, and fluid. What a pleasure!
The text for this card ends:
Believe it or not, YOU ARE READY.
This is not the game of perfection.
This is the practice of showing up, as is:
exposed, radiant, and true.
Simple, right? I wish I could say I'm able to manifest this kind of courage in the face of all risks. As an artist, I can be bold; taking chances no longer frightens me, even when my professional work is at stake. Au contraire, it keeps my work fresh. In other areas of life it's not so easy. I tried to bring this feeling, too, into the illustration.
As in life, so in art.
I'm also in the process of developing a new creative project of my own which is risky. More on that next week.
The design phase of The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck is nearing completion. You can view and/or pre-order The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck here.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard