Chat #10 - Frank Duffy
"It is like a queue of pictures lining up, waiting to be made"
Frank Duffy is a non-binary painter and printmaker originally from Cardiff but now living in rural West Wales. Their work explores the liminal space inhabited by queerness and magic. They’ve been reading tarot cards since their mid teens, and published their own deck in 2024 created through linoprinting.
Discover more here - https://frankduffy.co.uk/
28/10/2025, 16:01 - Finbarre:
Frank Duffy, it is marvellous to be able to speak to you finally on Tarot DMs. How is Wales today?
28/10/2025, 16:02 - Frank:
Hello, Shwmae. Wales is beautiful. We’ve got a blue sky with dappled cloud and all the autumn colours of all the trees. I live very rurally in West Wales and we’ve got a big garden and I’m lucky to have standing stones in our garden and it’s just such a gorgeous day.
28/10/2025, 16:05 - Finbarre:
Now wait just one moment. I was looking at frankduffy.co.uk at the tiny little pictures of cats peering over a mirror, a gorgeous fox. We’ve gotone of the My Little Ponies there… is it an alicorn or a unicorn tucked away on the window ledge? I had no idea you have standing stones in your garden! Now, did you bring them yourself were they there? Tell me about this. I knew nothing about the standing stones, that is fascinating. Also is it like Skyrim if you touch them do you get a special ability?
28/10/2025, 16:07 - Frank:
Okay, so I don’t know what an alicorn is…. they’re just my little ponies that I had when I was a kid. The standing stones are allegedly original. My partner’s parents owned the land before us and they moved here I think in the early 80s and they’re original as far as anyone knows.
There’s one big one and one small one. They’re quartz so they sparkle in the sunlight. I call them Bert and Ernie after the Sacred Elders. I don’t know if they give you special powers but they are very special to me.
28/10/2025, 16:09 - Finbarre:
One of my children is a big fan of my little pony friendship is magic apologies for that jingling noise one of my cats is cleaning themselves and i think they’ve just finished. Right so an alicorn, I think, is this chimeric hybrid of a unicorn and a pegasus so you’ve got double the fabulousness! Speaking of doubly fabulous those two glittery stones are incredible. Do you have a picture by any chance?
28/10/2025, 16:11 - Frank:
here they are!
28/10/2025, 16:11 - Frank:
So we have one unicorn, one pegasus and one just normal pony of the My Little Ponies. But these are original 1980s ones because I am old. Yeah, so I had to scoot back in my photos to find a picture of the stones. As you can see, one is very small and one is about waist height, maybe a little bit taller, maybe about four foot tall.
28/10/2025, 16:11 - Finbarre:
The jingly purrrpetrator!
28/10/2025, 16:13 - Finbarre: That looks utterly enchanting! Thank you so much for sharing that. Right, cards time and as you know your first one on Tarot DMs will be The Devil. On a fancy purple cloth today.
28/10/2025, 16:13 - Finbarre:
28/10/2025, 16:14 - Finbarre:
I know that you’re utterly au fait with the tarot, because we’ll go into that very shortly. For people who may not know, the Devil card often signifies the illusion of entrapment. It’s a card of reckoning, sometimes rebellion, and it’s a wake-up call cloaked in glamour. So, for your question.
28/10/2025, 16:15 - Finbarre:
I get the impression that you aim to expose harmful norms and what’s considered normal. What chains are you aiming to break through in your art?
28/10/2025, 16:20 - Frank:
That is a very good question and I’m trying to I’m going to try and keep focused on this because i could blather for a very long time! I am a non-binary autistic queer person. I mean, somebody has to be hated by the Daily Mail right? Growing up with that, of not feeling like I fit in anywhere… I think a lot of us who grow up queer are on the edges. We are beyond the pale to use the old sort of way of saying it we’re on the edges and we’re looking in. We can see how the structures are built.
When I’m talking about structures I’m talking about… I’m about to use a long queer theory word heterocentricity and what that means is the heterocentrism is the unthinking assumption that everybody is heterosexual and cisgendered. If you appear to be female and somebody says to you “Oh have you got a husband?” that’s heterosexism uh centrism, sorry. What this what this structure does is a little bit like The Tower I suppose. To look at a card very close to The Devil in the in the order of the Major Arcana it creates this kind of a relationship escalator of how people live their lives and is intertwined with the patriarchy and with capitalism in my view these are just theories but this is how i see it and a lot of people see it and we see these things as being very harmful.
So even if you are a cis het man there are certain things you might not feel comfortable doing, you know. You might not want to walk down the road wearing a dress or makeup or nail varnish. Why, why are those rules? They’re just completely arbitrary. If you don’t fit into… still in this day and age with quite rigid gender norms, you are punished. So I think that what I’m trying to get at with my art and this is always one of those things that are retrofitted. What I’m trying to get at… I try to show how strange the world is.
I’m looking at the spaces between things. I’m looking at where the magic is, the liminal spaces where Death is, the strangeness of The World. We cling so tightly to certainty our lives are so profoundly uncertain that I try to create artworks that feel slightly strange, slightly uncomfortable, but inviting in the same way and that is how I queer my art but these images just come to me. They just appear to me I make the images and then I realize what they’re about afterwards so you know this all might be rubbish. It might be me sort of like post intellectualizing something that is just a very intuitive instinctive process but that’s how i feel about it. I hope that answers your question
28/10/2025, 16:25 - Finbarre:
Oh, you most certainly did, and as a, albeit unconventional, but still middle-aged, middle-class, cishet, white guy, there is so much for me there to learn from.
Out of interest, do you have any artwork that corresponds to the 15th card of the Major Arcana, however you’ve interpreted it?
28/10/2025, 16:26 - Finbarre:
I would love to see how you’ve queered up the devil, even more so than they traditionally are.
28/10/2025, 16:27 - Frank:
here they are!
28/10/2025, 16:29 - Finbarre:
The colour in that card is magnificent. My eye is drawn, however, right to the top, where you have the star, and I’m assuming is that the North Star? This is a wonderful piece. Thank you for sharing it.
28/10/2025, 16:29 - Frank:
This is where I promo that this is my tarot deck the Queer Crow Death Magic Tarot. It’s a linocut deck, I cut the shapes into the lino and then there’s an ink roller that goes across so it’s a very simple deck. It’s currently on Kickstarter at the moment there’s two or three more days left.
I thought i would just quickly read you my tarot book - my summing up of The Devil because I’m better at writing than I am at speaking… so I said “Joseph Campbell said something in the cave you fear is the treasure you seek. The practice of noticing that we desire allows us to bring ourselves more fully into conscious light but desire often brings shame which holds a carnival mirror up to our desires making them monstrous. Those of us prone to seeing monsters everywhere would do well to find the carnival mirror”. Within Lucifer is the bringer of light and is Venus in her morning star aspect so yeah it’s very much about you know I could turn away from a kind of Christian idea of the devil and to this Jungian idea of the devil as being an aspect of ourselves that we have rejected and that becomes monstrous and we see it in other people and it’s actually something that we need to turn within and look at, and that binds us. As you said in your first message about The Devil. There is desire there there, there is beauty there is glamour but there’s also fear… in in the cave we fear as the treasure we seek. So yeah, that’s my devil.
28/10/2025, 16:30 - Frank:
The star is Venus. So yeah, I don’t know how much you know about astrology, but Venus has this movement where she goes retrograde and direct. She goes around the sun. So sometimes she’s a morning star and sometimes she’s an evening star.
When she is a morning star, she is called Lucifer.
She’s the bringer of light. So and Venus, as we know, is about beauty and harmony and desire. And so there’s that aspect of the devil is there. It’s very small. It’s at the top, but it is there. So it’s a complex card.
28/10/2025, 16:34 - Finbarre:
Frank I am such a fan of linoprint and that style. not just your work but other people that have that similar folk art energy. This card the devil card, or any other from your tarot deck, I could happily just place in a frame and put on the the wall going up my stairs. It’s a gorgeous piece.
You’ve just got me thinking as well, after this interview I’m going to look into how to create a very basic linoprint and see if i can get my hands dirty instead of just appreciating it.
I might give it a go myself inspired by your devil! Okay right we’re on to your next card now this is The Wild Card and this is one that I’m going to pull from the deck whenever you say or write stop and we’ll see what we get.
28/10/2025, 16:35 - Frank: stop!
28/10/2025, 16:36 - Finbarre:
Ta da!
28/10/2025, 16:38 - Finbarre:
There are so many cards that come up where I go, oh, I love that card, and the Ace of Wands is definitely one. I used it as the logo of the sister project to Tarot DMs, Tarot Interviews, just because it’s that surge of creative energy. What better way to herald a creative project with enthusiasm? It kind of represents the first flicker of those new ideas. And yeah, it’s a green light from the universe. Saying, start the project, burn brightly!
Right, I need to come up with a question for you. While I do, could you show me your own version of this?
28/10/2025, 16:40 - Frank:
certainly! here you are! there’s that triangle symbolising fire in the middle 🔥
28/10/2025, 16:42 - Finbarre:
My first impression is that a match has been struck. That something magical has occurred to transform that spark or that flame into a dandelion clock of possibility, with the seeds ready to burst forth.
Right. My question to you is a nice simple one.
What is making you excited right now?
28/10/2025, 16:45 - Frank:
So there’s a couple of things that are making me very excited i had to think for a little while… because there are so many things. The couple of things that spring immediately to mind are that I injured my back quite badly in the summer, and I was out of action for about a month. The garden I grew a lot of veg and the garden just went jungle! Plants everywhere jungle and I just feel like I’m bringing it back into like we’re being friends again and working together. I’ve got it back to a place of where we’re back in conversation. Yesterday I was planting broad beans and tomorrow I’ll be planting onion sets and that rhythm of, you know, planting things to harvest them in three months or six months… you know we’ll go through the winter and these broad beans and these onions will grow up through the winter and they will feed us in the spring and I just love that. I just absolutely adore that.
The other thing I’m really excited about is that um I go through periods of getting lots of really vivid ideas of pictures that i want to make and I made one today. I’ve got more sort of queuing up ready to be made so that always really gets me excited when I’m just feeling very creative. So yeah, Ace of Wands is a perfect pull, thank you.
28/10/2025, 16:48 - Finbarre:
If ever I’m trundling about, going about my day, or for a walk somewhere perhaps, I have a button on the side of my phone dedicated to open an app called Obsidian. I press it, go straight into my notepad, and I get those ideas down straight away as text.
I can’t imagine if you have that tantalizing visual mote, that beckoning image that is almost realized and it’s asking you to make it. How do you capture that? Do you have a teeny weeny scrapbook in your back pocket that you whip out, jot down a quick scribble and put it away? How does it work with a visual image?
28/10/2025, 16:52 - Frank:
I love this idea of you walking around and just bringing your phone out to record a thought, an idea. I would never think to do that. I tend to just use my phone for taking pictures of mushrooms when I’m on walks. I’ve got these little A6 sketchbooks that I take in a bag if I’m going somewhere. Sometimes I take a little thing of watercolours as well.
Ironically for someone who is profoundly face-blind, I have a very strong visual memory. so if I get a picture in my head, I can probably hold it in my head for a good half day or a day. That gives me enough time to get it down.
But what I’ll do is I’ll take a picture now.
I’ve got one of the sketchbooks here with some pictures of when I’m actually in the process of making the tarot deck and you can see how scribbly and rough they are. Then they become these tarot cards.
28/10/2025, 16:53 - Frank:
This is the scribble for the four of cups!
28/10/2025, 16:55 - Finbarre: Not just a scribble, the multiple/chaotic lines there make it wibble too! That image looks like it is vibrating before my eyes. If this is the Before do you have the After?
28/10/2025, 16:56 - Frank:
here’s the after!
28/10/2025, 16:57 - Frank: as you can see with lino the images get reversed!
28/10/2025, 16:57 - Finbarre: Ready for your last one, Frank?
28/10/2025, 16:58 - Frank: yes indeed!
28/10/2025, 16:58 - Finbarre: This is The Gift Card, the tarot card chosen by the previous guest. Earlier on today I was speaking to Sacha Coward, author of Queer As Folklore and he has picked out this especially...
28/10/2025, 16:58 - Finbarre:
28/10/2025, 16:59 - Finbarre:
It’s a lot more kind than the one that he was given. Right. When have you surprised yourself with your own creative ability?
28/10/2025, 17:01 - Finbarre: NGL - your workshop picture on https://frankduffy.co.uk/ has BIG Magician vibes
28/10/2025, 17:01 - Frank:
I had to wait a little while before starting to record this because I just burst into laughter. I have almost got tears in my eyes with how funny that is because when have I surprised myself with my creative ability?
So The Magician was perhaps all the first or second card that I cut. And when I cut it, I thought this looks like a tarot card. I think maybe the first one was either the Ace or the Two of Cups. I can’t quite remember, I think maybe it was the Ace. Either way, I was like, I’m not doing a tarot deck. I don’t want to do a tarot deck. That’s ridiculous. There’s 78 cards. I’m not doing that.
I just looked at The Magician card and the magician card looked back at me. And lo and behold, if that isn’t a warning against engaging with the magician and the surprising power of creativity, I don’t know what to say. So, yeah, the fact that I managed to create a tarot deck is when it was something I did not want to do.
That is. That’s and it came out of The Magician. So what a perfect card as if the tarot knew, funnily enough.
28/10/2025, 17:04 - Finbarre:
And now Frank Duffy the power is yours, use it wisely. Which card would you pass on to the next person? Now it doesn’t have to be a nice one (I say this to everyone because some of the most interesting answers come from the hardest cards) Having said that you might want to give somebody a break and let them have a slightly easier option but that is entirely up to you. Even better if you happen to have that card to hand and take a picture of it, I’ll be able to show it to the next person.
28/10/2025, 17:06 - Frank:
the first card that popped into my head is Judgement / The Last Judgement, so that’s what I’m going with!
28/10/2025, 17:08 - Finbarre:
Oh, now that is a good choice. It is also a card that I rarely see, which probably gives away far too much about me. Yeah, I think you’re right. A card that brings actions and decisions to the surface. Yeah, we can work with this.
Frank Duffy, thank you so much for being on Tarot DMs. It has been a delight finally meeting you and looking into your work. Now, I, like many people, utterly love your cards. How can we get our hot little mitts on the cards that you create? And can you tell me a little bit about the Kickstarter, where that’s based too?
28/10/2025, 17:09 - Frank: so, I’m going to share a couple of links:
28/10/2025, 17:09 - Frank: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frankduffy/queer-crow-death-magic-tarot
28/10/2025, 17:10 - Frank: shop.frankduffy.co.uk/franks-slow-burn-tarot-deck-kickstarter/
28/10/2025, 17:12 - Frank:
Right so to be really confusing there are two links there the first link is for the actual Kickstarter website. I’ve got a Kickstarter going at the moment to help me pay for the second printing of the tarot deck so i printed 250 decks initially there are a few left of the first edition I have numbered and signed. I’m crowdfunding, I’m Kickstartering to … it’s it’s gone way past the goal it’s like 150 odd percent 160 percent so that’s going to pay for the reprinting and their cards are actually being printed at the moment. They’ll be delivered in mid November once the Kickstarter finishes which is finishing at midnight on Halloween.
Now on Calan Gaeaf if you’re Welsh, Samhain if you’re Scots or Irish it’ll be finishing midnight then and from that after that it’ll be on the second link which is actually on my shop and it will be available for buying then.
So yeah Kickstarter if you don’t know about it’s like a crowdfunder. There’s no guarantee of actually getting the rewards but what you’re doing is backing the project and if you back the project you will definitely get a tarot deck. The work is done, the cards are actually being printed but it’s a way for people to who don’t have the money to actually get something done themselves to say well this is a thing I’m making and if you believe in it you know you put some money towards it. As a reward as a thank you. you will get a copy of my book or a copy of my tarot deck or a copy of my gizmo that i invented or whatever it is that they’re actually Kickstartering for.
So yeah that’s the process it’s been very exciting and I’m really chuffed how well it’s done and how many people all over the world have believed in it and I’m really excited about that.
Thank you so much Finbarre inviting me on, it’s been a lot of fun. I was a bit nervous but it’s been great and I really hope that you do try linocutting because I find it’s it’s a really beautiful way of stilling the mind and creating something with cut but it’s both carving and and making a picture at the same time and it’s a really a really lovely thing to do. I think anyway! Best of luck with that I hope you do do it.