King of cups

This painting is a part of my Queer Revolution Tarot series. I painted 78 tarot cards based on the themes of traditional decks, but with a gender expansive approach to a traditionally binary categorization. Masculine and feminine are qualities, not bodies, and anybody could embody either or both.

This card represents emotional balance, compassion, diplomacy, and leadership. When you master your own emotions, you can be a stable resource to those around you. You accept and feel your emotions while setting boundaries so that you can stay balanced. With this self-mastery comes compassion, understanding, and patience for those still on their journey for emotional balance.

The attributes of this card transcend gender, so when choosing a model I gravitated toward someone with a particular aura, not a particular gender. Most of my models identify as queer, and many models are genderqueer. When staging the reference photos, I chose the location, pose, lighting, etc, but always told my models to style themselves, wearing something that made them “feel hot and cool.” I felt like across the deck, this would aesthetically show the broad spectrum of gender expression.

Each of the kings in the deck pose with their leg up in a power stance. The king of cups raises his glass in front of a strong column in a neoclassical building. The viewer is standing at a low perspective, knee level, looking up at the king, the king gazes down directly at the viewer.