Hello again,

Well, this was supposed to be 4 days after the last update, but I didn't get that one out on time.
So back to back, let's take a look at some new cards I've designed for the Missing America Booster Pack compared to the original cards by Amy Smith that you'll find in the Hot Housewives deck!

With the Son and Daughter of Pies, I went different approaches for sure. The Daughter featured a girl dancing at the diner, and this time I wanted to see a first peoples girl dancing in the grass, looked on at by the people at a diner, jukebox and all. This card is about dancing and being joyous and not looking beyond that, which I felt worked well with this almost forcefield element around her head, driving off the curiosities of the white people looking on at her. In reverse though, she is ignoring things that affect people in a greater way than just herself.

The Son was shown on the campaign from the start, but I've added in the pie and foil hearts from the boy checking our Son out. The original Son of Pies was already plenty implied to be gay, but this one is just a little more obvious. This was from an old advert for swimsuits, which I find pretty great. Also making use of soviet propaganda where they tried to connect Russia with China to fight against their foes that comes across (and always kind of did) a little gay!

The Mother has become the Grandmother! I wanted an older native woman with a wonderful spread of food before her. Squash, flatbread, fish, chicken, and pie of course. For the parents, I decided to do pie halos because if I have a round design element I will always struggle to not make halos. Forgive me. I have not chosen to make anything in her card black and white, which makes her stand out a LOT. But I think it works. In readings she's about doing all the labor to be the host with the most, and how people appreciate and laud you. What you do is meaningful! In reverse it can be more like you do all the work because people expect it of you.

The Father is about a person who does nothing to make the works of labor before him, but who lives as a king. I chose to give him a literal king portrait on the wall, top him off with a fedora, and give him a green foil table to eat off of. I feel like love is still here, but it's lesser than the other members of family present in this court of cards. He's at the top of the pyramid of power and loves it. Because of this card's meaning I was really hesitant about putting a minority in this seat of power for, I hope, obvious reasons. Still, here he is! compared to Amy's, the table is a bit empty, so I might add a few more things to its space-- let me know if you have thoughts!

The thing that usually holds me up on getting projects done is the guidebook. I've mentioned this a few times across my projects. But it turns out thanks to the way I approached this deck, writing up card design ideas and at least partial meanings FIRST, then moving to art, putting it all into the guide has proven rather quick. Now I still have to pass through the guide and clean up the old meanings and whatnot, but there's already a lot to work with! That means most of my effort will be cleaning up and expanding, then what's unique about this deck and ways to read with it!

I'm feeling really good about tackling this guidebook and getting it done!

I think I have a fun idea or two to add to page edges, but these two entries for example have already been read through, expanded, and completed. These two both have notes underneath in italics with a little pointer finger to start the comment. Old Mabel's talks about the "magical negro" trope that exists in her character, while the text doesn't necessarily address that element as much. I have other notes under various cards to help share a bit about my reading of Plutopia by Kate Brown, and what element of our history surrounding Richland, a real plutonium town, inspired the card or art. 

In the past, some people have asked that the deck be less clearly American, because things present here are also present in Canada or Europe-- but they really aren't. Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia may be present the world over, but this is more than just those loose topics. The Hot Housewives Tarot takes place in a town made to support a Plutonium factory/lab, and the specific approaches to many of these topics come in through this lens. So I hope my notes help share and take apart the worst of ideologies presented in this deck, but also in helping readers understand our atomic history as a country.

Talk again later this week with another family!

7DA
your pub gob