Sam Guay: images that do not explain, but open

Sam Guay: images that do not explain, but open

Sam Guay’s illustrations do not draw you in through hard contrast or neatly fixed symbols. They ask for something else: time. If you keep looking, the images set their own pace. That has everything to do with how the work is made. Sam Guay works in watercolor, a medium with little room for correction. Water and pigment decide the direction together. That way of working reflects a broader approach: noticing what shows up, and continuing with care.

Not every image needs to be understood right away.

An artist working from experience

Sam Guay is a watercolor artist and illustrator, internationally best known for the Blood Moon Tarot. Experience sits at the center of the work. Not the system, not the perfect shape, but what an image can bring up when it is given space. That is why the illustrations often feel narrative, like a scene that began mid story and does not need to end with a conclusion. It invites you to look without rushing, and without pressure to find the right words immediately.

The role of nature and the body

Across many illustrations, motifs return that point directly to the natural world: leaves, moths, snakes, hands, skin. Not as fixed symbols with one meaning, but as carriers of atmosphere and feeling. Nature does not appear as background decoration, but as something close. The landscape sometimes seems to merge with the inner world. Physicality plays a clear role. Hands reach out, carry, protect, or let go. Figures are rarely sharply outlined and often move between visible and invisible.

What is not fixed can keep moving.

Blood Moon Tarot: a tarot deck that does not rely on fixed keywords

Sam Guay’s best known work is the Blood Moon Tarot. This tarot deck contains 78 cards, all hand painted in watercolor. It began as an independent project and later received wider distribution, making it available worldwide. While the tarot structure remains recognizable, the execution intentionally steps away from classic systems. The Major Arcana are narrative scenes that feel more like dream fragments than traditional iconography. The Minor Arcana are divided into four distinct suits, each with its own mood and themes.

A card does not have to predict anything to say something.

Image before meaning

In the guide text for the Blood Moon Tarot, the focus is not on one fixed list of meanings. The cards are approached as directions and perspectives, not conclusions. This makes the deck less suitable for those who want firm footing in clear keywords, but compelling for anyone who wants to explore what an image brings up. Emotions, memories, and associations are allowed to exist side by side. For many readers, this deck supports reflection: not because it labels everything, but because it makes something visible.

About language and pronouns

In English sources, Sam Guay is often referred to with the gender neutral pronouns they/them. In Dutch, this is commonly translated as hen or hun. This follows how Sam Guay self identifies and is used consistently in publications and by publishers. It says little about the work itself, but it fits the attention to nuance and care that is also present in the illustrations.

Why this work keeps resonating

What sets Sam Guay’s work apart is not only the aesthetic, but the attitude behind it. The illustrations do not try to force anything. They do not explain. They show something and then leave room. Many people notice the cards land differently over time. Not because the image changes, but because the viewer does. What first stayed in the background can later come forward, simply because attention shifts.

Images grow with the person who looks.

Sam Guay and the Blood Moon Tarot at a glance

Sam Guay is a watercolor artist and illustrator, best known for the Blood Moon Tarot. This tarot deck contains 78 hand painted cards and is known for narrative imagery, an open approach to interpretation, and a focus on experience over fixed meaning. The work appeals to readers who use tarot for reflection and visual language, and who connect with a calm, layered approach.