New York City Street Tree Tarot

Unique tarot cards featuring New York City's street trees by artist Matthew López-Jensen. Including 80 tarot cards and a booklet with texts and guide words. New York City has 700,000 street trees. These trees are asked to work harder than others, doing more with less. They provide shade, absorb stormwater, create microclimates, and dampen loud urban sounds. Like still lifes, they symbolize larger ideas and profound histories. The New York City Street Tree Tarot deck can be used like any other tarot deck. However, users are encouraged to interpret the cards in their own way as they read the accompanying texts and guide words. This allows them to develop new patterns and ways of interacting with the iconography.

For over 20 years artist Matthew López-Jensen (b. 1980) has created works about human-tree relationships. He is a Citizen Pruner, NYC Parks Super Steward, and community gardener. López-Jensen lives and works in the Bronx and teaches environmental art at Fordham University and Parsons School of Design. He is a Guggenheim Fellow in photography, and his work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. He received his MFA from the University of Connecticut, and BA from Rice University. He was the first Erie Canal artist-in-residence and has participated in residency programs at MacDowell, the New York City Urban Field Station, Guild Hall, the Queens Museum, Wave Hill, and LMCC. He is the author and artist of Park Wonder (Paper Crown Press, 2017) and The Work and the Water: Labor and Landscapes Along the Erie Canal (Inventory Press, 2025). Both books combine photography, mapping, and contributions from people deeply connected to the featured landscapes.