Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julie Raven. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Julie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I’ve been working on and continue to work on is my Tarot set. I got my first Tarot deck when I was somewhere between 11-13 years old, and have been learning the meanings of the cards since. I still don’t have everything memorized and I’m not fully intuitive in my tarot reads at this point, but the cards have been a huge part of my spiritual journey. The cards tell us stories of struggles, triumphs, and growth, and connect us with archetypes in our universe, who we experience in everyday life as well, and help guide us on our Hero’s Journey (we each are on one!).
When I started making my own deck with my own art, this is what gave me the chance to deeply get to know each card. I spend time, I seek out imagery that connects me to the meaning of the card. For example, the Hierophant is a card about religion, conformity or following convention, spiritual wisdom, mentorship, authority, being part of a community, and adhering to “tried and tested” practices. My hierophant card bears a ram skull, apples, and white lilies. The skull represents religion and conformity, an authority figure, and a guide. The apples represent spiritual wisdom, sharing that knowledge (there’re two!), and being part of the community. The lilies are the “tried and tested practices” while also blessing spiritual wisdom and community work. When my version of the Hierophant card comes up, it brings me all of the messages of the card with the images I have painted and connects me to the idea and energy of the Hierophant itself. Creating these cards has helped me to see how this archetype appears in myself and in my life, and I can look for a Hierophant figure in my life when I need guidance on community involvement and spiritual wisdom, but by staying within the rules and routine that a community has established.
This work is so important to me not just in spiritual practice, but in bettering myself. I can identify and work with different parts of my mind and personality through the cards, and talk not just to the universe, but to the inner self which retains so much ancient wisdom that we just don’t know how to communicate or unlock until we find or make the tools to do so. I am connecting and learning from the cards, and they are learning how to appear to me to best share their message, as I draw and paint each new one.
It’s been slow work, as I take a lot of time to deeply consider the meaning of the cards and how to show that meaning to myself and others in a way that’s easy to understand, yet deeply poignant. It’s a lot of research and planning before I get to the drawing and painting stages, but it’s significant work. When this deck is complete, it will be a good reflection of my soul and how the Hero’s Journey and archetypes look in my own personal life. Maybe others will connect to it as well!
Julie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Julie Raven, and I created my little business, Cute As Hell! I specialize in watercolor and digital art pieces that use vibrant, intense colors, and macabre or spiritual imagery (Usually!). I also specialize in pet portraits and tattoo designs! I like to have my art turned into keychains, stickers, blankets, etc. Whatever product I can slap my designs on, I want to do it! It’s just so fun to see these pieces of myself transformed into so many objects!
I began my small art business in 2013 while finishing my Bachelor’s in Art Education. I had designed a lot of my business around teaching others and having workshops, originally, as I very much wanted to be an art teacher. However, I quickly found that arranging events and workshops was more work, time, and money than I could handle or commit to, as I was running my business part-time while also working a full-time day job as an IT Support Specialist (and still am!).
I did commissions via Fiverr, Ko-Fi, and personal transactions when I stopped holding workshops. I moved to be almost solely commissioned base for at least 5 years, which was empowering that people enjoyed my art enough to want their own, however, I learned that not making the art *I* wanted to make was starting to take a toll on me mentally.
So, in 2019 and through the Pandemic Shut Down years, I focused on art that was just mine. I created pieces based on Tarot and Sacred Geometry and began to really explore spiritual subjects in my artistic work. Since then, I’ve built up a large collection of pieces and designs that explore the occult and have spiritual meaning to me. I explore bones, plants, and flowers, of all kinds, and get to know them and their cultural and spiritual significance as I pull them into my works.
It’s not all serious, I have many cute pieces of ghost cats, Halloween balloons, and more. But the pieces I’m most proud of tend to be my pieces based on the spiritual world. I love using a twist of highly saturated colors in my pieces, which I think sets me apart from most artists who explore subjects similar to mine, and have been called the Lisa Frank of Spooky Art.
My craft supports me in my spiritual journey as well as financially, and allows me to share the lessons I have learned in a manner that connects and speaks to others, without being abrasive or overwhelming. When people see my art and ask about it, I get to share the stories of what I’ve experienced and learned, of what is significant to me, and of what is beautiful to me. When they take home a piece of mine, they take home that lesson and what they learned from it. They take home my little messages from the universe that I’ve been given to share, which is so beautiful to me.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part of being an artist has been being able to put the images in my head or the images I see in dreams onto paper. I get to make into reality something that can be touched and seen by others, and I can share what is so hard to communicate in words with the pieces I make. I get to share and show why Halloween is special to me, why the occult and the spooky are so special to me, and just how beautiful (and cute!) they can be. It connects me to people who are on a similar journey in life, so I get to meet my fellow weirdos and spooky friends through the pieces I create and the people who are attracted to them. I get to start forming a new reality and a new community through my work as an artist. This whole process is significant in how I have learned to manifest and allows me to connect to the Divine in a unique way: I create, as does the Universe, and I get to make the ideas in my head come to life. It’s incredible, to me, to be able to think of what I want to create and to be able to do it.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I’ve talked a lot about my spirituality and how my art is so tied to it, but the entire business itself has been a journey and not always easy. I think many people don’t understand just how much time goes into the work I do, not just to create the pieces, but to apply for markets, design my selling space, set up my merchandise, create listings, design websites, keep a budget, promote myself, remember tax deadlines, carry my studio with me when I need to travel, and more. I am the business owner and the only employee of my business, so I have had to learn business basics, finances, social media curation, and SO much more. While the spiritual and artistic part is very fun for me and is the most significant part for me, it probably only occupies about 10% of my time, while the other 90% is split amongst figuring out the rest of the business. It’s a huge step to take, even as a part-time business and not seeking to make it my full-time income. It occupies a lot of my time, and I spend time when I would be off from my regular job, working on my art business. I have to remind myself to rest and take days off, even if I’m enjoying the creation process, as in reality, I am working two jobs where the hours add up to being full-time even if I only run my business part-time.
Contact Info:
- Website: etsy.com/shop/julieravenart
- Instagram: instagram.com/cuteasheckate
- Facebook: facebook.com/julieravenart
- Twitter: twitter.com/cuteasheckate