Couple’s favorite college sports team becomes the perfect theme for their family tree painting
One of the best aspects of being a family tree artist is learning new and interesting facts about the lives of others. Some of my projects give me a glimpse into the hobbies and passions of people that I otherwise would never come in contact with or learn about. For example, I have recently completed a family tree painting for a family passionate about the Auburn university college sports. Being from the Northeastern United States and (quite frankly) not being much of a fan of any college sports I knew absolutely nothing about the university itself …let alone its sports teams.
I got to say that I found learning about the Auburn traditions fascinating. For example their football team is called the Tigers, but at the games people shout “War Eagle!”
The Auburn fans even great each other with “War Eagle” instead of a ‘hello’…. Go figure, right? The coolest, in my opinion, part is that there is an actual eagle that flies over the stadium before the games. Since I wanted to include this majestic bird into the painting I actually did a little research on the Auburn war eagles. One of the funnest facts I dug up was that one of the retired war eagle’s name was… wait for it… Tiger!
Another tradition that I decided to include into my painting was the toilet papering of the oak trees on campus to celebrate their team’s victory. Just how much fun does that sound? I think people would be so much less stressed if all of us celebrated our little life victories with toilet papering a tree (or a bush to make the cleanup easier). Got a promotion at work – go toilet paper a cherry tree in your front yard! Yay! But I digress… To capitalize on the Auburn’s awesome toilet papering tradition I painted an unfolded toilet paper roll to serve as a banner for the couple’s wedding anniversary date.
…And then there is tailgating! There are cozies, coolers, cups, portable grills, and whatever else you might possibly need for tailgating in blue and orange (Auburn’s official colors).
Custom portrait turns a family into Auburn Tigers team
After reading for hours about Auburn and it’s fine traditions I got an idea of dressing every single person in the family in Auburn blue and orange gear. Even the baby of the family! I dressed him up as a cute Auburn tiger. All the blues and oranges gave the painting a very uniformed look. There was no mistaking that this family are die-hard Auburn fans. Of course, I didn’t neglect to include every family member’s hobbies and/or professions to reflect who each person is as an individual. I liked the idea behind the painting so much that I kept on working on it for about 24 hours straight just adding more and more Auburn-related little details.
To my delight my hard work payed off and the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (the family tree was intended for as a gift) really loved the painting.
Blue and orange family tree for Auburn University Tigers fans
I would absolutely love to do another family tree for a family of college sports fans. If your family has a favorite team or if you’re looking for a unique, creative gift for someone who’s a college sports fanatic please contact me and I promise that I’ll create one fun family tree painting for you!
