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Interview

Urban Desires: What's your background?

John J. Hill: I grew up in Detroit... nothing very exiting to say about that (but don't get me wrong, I LOVE the place). In high school I started getting serious about art... mainly pen and ink illustration. In college (the University of Michigan) I rediscovered computers. I used to dork around with my Commodore 64 as a kid, but dropped it around 7th grade or so. After graduating with a BFA in Photography and Digital Imaging, I wound up getting into multimedia. Now I'm living in New York doing web sites, CD ROM artwork, music cd covers, and my own artwork when I get a chance.

UD: What made you decide to do Tarot cards, and do you always work in a series?

JJH: I hadn't worked on a series in a couple of years, and it was about that time. That kind of thing comes in cycles for me. I'll work on single images for a few years and then have an urge to make this huge mass of imagery. The right idea comes along and I'll do that as a series for awhile. All these other ideas will start building up so by the time I'm finished with the series, I have a ton of fresh ideas for new pieces. Working like that helps me to keep away from the dread "artistic block". Anyway, at that point it was time for my senior thesis (spring of '94), and the Tarot seemed like the perfect project to do. My work at the time was leaning toward a dark, mystical feel. I hadn't seen too many contemporary takes on the deck, so I thought it'd be a good idea.

UD: How long did the project take from beginning to end?

JJH: About 3 months... a month of research, a month off and on of photo shoots and another month of working on the images.

UD: Did you spend a lot of time looking at existing sets before starting these cards?

JJH: Definitely. That really helped me realize that this was the right project. I was disappointed that the majority of what was out there was done in various old styles. I was hoping to see a lot more "new" versions of the Tarot. Since then I've come across some great ones though. The H.R. Giger Tarot, which just uses a lot of his existing work... and the Vertigo Tarot by Dave McKean (for D.C. Comics), which is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

UD: What made you choose to make the cards you did?

JJH: After researching the whole set, I sketched ideas of the cards that stood out more for me. Some were obvious to me that they had to be done.

UD: Did you arrange photo shoots for particular cards, or did you take photos first and decide which cards they might be for after?

JJH: Both. I took the sketches and did a photo shoot based on them. I continuted the shoot with random poses and ideas that came up on the spot. Some of the ad lib stuff worked better than the original ideas I had, so I used those.

UD: Was the process similar for each card, or did you work on different aspects in different orders for different cards?

JJH: Pretty much the same. A few of the cards were mistakes that I liked so much I left them how they were. The Aeon card is one of the mistakes. I put a few of the wrong textures together but it had such a weird, nasty, skin like feel to it I left it how it was.

UD: Do you ever think of finishing the series, or of working on another series?

JJH: By the time I had finished 10 cards, I was pretty much tired of working on them. I'd love to do the whole thing, but seeing how much time these took I'd have to have a lot of free time on my hands. Maybe in the next 5 years or so I'll finish it up.

UD: What's the story with the 5 other images, aside from the Tarot?

JJH: Four are just some personal studies I did. "Digital sketches" you could call them. The real long last one is a piece I did for T-26, which is a type company in Chicago. They're supposed to use as part of a promo thing for a bunch of their new fonts.

UD: So what's next for you?

JJH: I'm definitely going to do another series soon. What it'll be about I don't know, but I'm hoping on starting up on that in the next few months. There's a lot of other projects I have to get out of the way too. I just finished the artwork end of this CD packaging for an Industrial music compilation... the design work is coming next. I'm also launching an artist group with some other new york artists. We're planning on doing a lot of stuff, and gallery shows is on the agenda. That should be a good incentive for me to get this series underway. Other than that I hope to continue focusing on web sites, and at the same time start doing some more print, which I miss dearly.