Family Tree Art: Unique gift with meaning

A memorable gift for today, a family heirloom for generations to come

The main idea behind my family trees is to create an illustration custom-tailored for each couple or each family.  There’s nothing genetic about my work.  I guess one can call the concept of family tree art genetic, but in reality even the trees I paint in my artwork is something I discuss with my clients.  Some of my customers prefer a specific type of a tree, others don’t care so much about the type, but care about the color of the leaves. While using some kind of a template would definitely be less time consuming I prefer to remain an illustrator and not just a craftsman.  It’s about quality, not quantity of the family trees I can produce.

I see myself as an artist hired to ‘illustrate’ someone’s life.  My goal is to have your great-great-grandchildren look at your family tree and get a feel for who each family member was.  I want them to feel a personal connection to you, to be able to tell their friends about their family history, about their ancestors.  I want them to say that one of their ancestors loved soccer just like they do or that another one liked to hold a funny looking rectangular device next to their ear.  You get the idea!

A gift that’s personal, not just personalized

Illustrating a family’s life story and making it worthy for the family to preserve forever is a pretty hefty task.  It’s a bit funny to think that in the past only the very rich and the royalty could afford to have their family trees painted.  As if no one else deserved to be remembered…

Nowadays, personalized family trees have become so common as gifts for parents’ anniversaries, a wife or a husband’s birthday, etc.   The amazing part is that there is such a great variety to choose from.  There are so many awesomely creative family tree styles for consumers to choose from.

What I love the most about the idea of giving a family tree gift to someone is that it is so much more than just a gift.  The truth is that all of us want to leave something behind.  We want to not only let our descendants know that we’ve existed, but for them to know who we were as people.

A custom family tree is a perfect time-capsule so to speak that accomplishes all of the above. So in a way when you give a personalized family tree gift to a person you also give a gift to his/her descendants.  Pretty cool, right?

I’m all about living a meaningful life: finding meaning in everything, doing meaningful things… Giving meaningful gifts! Going an extra mile to make everything that I can better.  As an artist who creates special gifts for people I’m in a position to go that extra mile for my customers to make sure the artwork I create is not just beautiful, but also meaningful.  I want my illustrations to be personal, not just personalized.

Just like reading a book

One of my objectives is making my family tree paintings to be read like a book.  You look at one part of the illustration and notice a typical New England countryside landscape.  That’s where your grandparents came from.  On the other side of the background there are mountains of Colorado, a place where they decided to move to after their retirement. Your grandmother is holding a book.  Reading is her favorite hobby.  Then you notice a little basket with yarn next to her feet.  She also loves knitting. She looks like a person who enjoys discovering new things, like someone who’s very content with her life. You get a feel for her personality.  It’s not just a portrait.  It’s a visual description of your grandmother’s personality.

There are no coincidences in life …or illustrations

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…  But not in my work!  If you see a cigar in one of my paintings it’s there because someone in your family smokes it! For me everything in my illustrations is deliberate. I don’t do random details. You tell me your mom loves the color pink and her favorite flower is a gladioli and I’ll make sure the pink gladioli will end up somewhere in your family tree painting.

I get a kick from knowing that it’ll take some time for the family I do a painting for to discover all the little details I place in my art. I’ve had costumers who would contact me weeks after they’ve received their family tree to tell me they’ve just noticed some particular detail and how cool they think it is. Discovering more and more personal family history references in your family tree becomes a scavenger hunt of sorts!  And I get to orchestrate it! Did I mention how much I love my job?  🙂

Meeting YOU is pretty awesome!

I’m one of those lucky people who are both amazed and absolutely grateful that people pay her money to do what she loves the most. It’s like being on vacation and having the resort you’re staying at pay you to stay there. I still can’t believe that the little kid who loved three things in life most of all (painting, reading, and getting to know people) grew up to combine her passions in one fun occupation. I get to ‘meet’ a family on a very personal level.  In my mind I always compare that part to reading a book.  Then I get to illustrate that book.

In the process I get to know my clients.  There were times when I laughed hysterically as my clients were telling me their family stories and inside jokes.  There were other times when I was crying because of  their family tragedies they felt comfortable to share with me.  I don’t get to chitchat with my clients.  We don’t discuss weather or football.  We dive right into everything that’s most important to them. I feel a connection to my clients and get to experience something amazing: the truth that we’re all humans who are all very similar.  We all want the same things: to have a loving family, to matter, to have a purpose, to leave a mark on the world…

I’m trying to leave mine by making my clients happy in the present and hopefully making their descendants just as happy feeling a special connection to them in the future.

If you would like to order a custom family tree illustration for your family please contact me at: artnsus@gmail.com