(she/her)

Stasia Burrington (nee Kato) was born in Texas, grew up in Montana and now lives and works in SeaTac, WA with her favorite people and two cats.

She is a full time artist/illustrator. Her passions lie in the arts – in all forms, experimental cooking, camping, theology and science fiction, fat nerdy science books, coffee and ice cream.

Stasia is the creator of our best-selling deck, the Sasuraibito Tarot, as well as the Empty Cup Oracle. Find her online at stasiaburringtonart.com!

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Stasia on creating the Sasuraibito Tarot…

I created a deck that mirrors my experience as an Asian-American woman living in the West, mostly by illustrating people who look like me, and by portraying a universe which shares my values and belief system.

As far as expressing Japanese culture, my cards are very nature-heavy: this is a little Shinto – the belief that everything has a spirit – even rocks and trees. For example, I’d rather have a tree on the Tower vs. a man-made structure, and for the Hermit card the mountain landscape is much grander than the human sitting in it. The cups of cups isn’t full of glittery gold goblets but of humble teacups, and none of the figures on the court cards have crowns, or thrones.

The Buddhist influence is subtle, and heavily Zen. Where I needed studious, religious figures those take the form of monks. The goal of these cards is to get the reader to question their assumptions. For example, the Devil is simply a handsome man. One of my favorite cards is the Six of Pentacles – where you really have to decide what is going on. You have to examine your stories.