From Tarot Tables to Casino Royale: How Playing Characters Heals the Artist

From Tarot Tables to Casino Royale: How Playing Characters Heals the Artist

The velvet is black tonight. Cards glint like moonlit feathers. Somewhere, far away from my studio and its quiet ghosts, a casino chandelier sways over green felt and false smiles. This Friday night I’ll be stepping into a role at a Casino Royale murder mystery at the Manship in Baton Rouge, a world of intrigue, champagne, and secrets whispered behind velvet curtains.

It still feels surreal to write that sentence.

For years, I sat at my art table, collaging Victorian faces onto foxes and building my strange little universes in silence. Tarot spreads, antique photographs, midnight edits, always a kind of sacred privacy. But healing has a way of widening your map. Since beginning my own creative recovery, I’ve stepped further and further outside the box I built for myself. Without someone whispering “no” or “you can’t” in my ear, I’ve found new doors swinging open.

And some of them open into casinos.

Why Murder Mysteries and Art Aren’t So Different

A murder mystery is just a collage made of people. The audience brings its own imagination, arranging clues and motives the way my viewers arrange stories around my digital collages. The glamour of Casino Royale is only the top layer; underneath, it’s all archetypes and shadows, just like Tarot cards.

By acting in immersive theater, I’m sharpening the same muscles I use for digital art and writing:

• Character creation: slipping into someone else’s skin, even for an evening.

• World-building: giving each prop and detail meaning, as if the casino walls themselves might lean closer to listen.

• Suspense and reveal: timing is everything, whether it’s a plot twist or a new series on my YouTube channel.

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What This Means for My Creative Journey

When you start saying yes to things that scare you, a murder mystery, a new series, a performance in front of strangers, you also start collecting new textures for your art. My collages have always been portals, but now my life feels like one too.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to try something audacious, to push your own creative comfort zone, let this be it. There’s a kind of magic that shows up only when you risk embarrassment, or delight, or transformation.

Come Along for the Mystery

If you’re near Baton Rouge or New Orleans this Friday, you can find me at the Casino Royale Murder Mystery, champagne flute in hand, poker face in place, playing a part I’ve only just begun to understand. I’ll be sharing behind-the-scenes photos and reflections on my site and Instagram after the show.

Your Turn

When was the last time you stepped outside your box? Tell me in the comments or reply to this email. I’d love to hear your stories.