Saturday, April 25, 2015

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Signs of Spring!


Hello! 
Blue Bird and Ladybugs

The nicest part of April is hearing the birds sing when I work outside clearing the debris of winter. Who knew such little ones could bring so much joy after winter.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Special Project: Clague Family Tree

Clague Family Tree

This is a break from tradition. 
I was asked by a friend to come in on to a project that relates to a little local history. 

In Westlake, Ohio, there is a little museum called the Clague House Museum that sports the Clague Playhouse in the back of it. Across from it is Clague Park.

So you kind of get with all the name dropping that the Clague family were kind of the pioneers that help established the surrounding area. It was the Clague family that cut down the trees to create the road that is now called Clague Rd.  

As I said, my friend, Betty Franklin, asked me to help on a project which turned out to be illustrating a family tree for the Clague family for the house museum at the request, help, and research of the curator, Lysa Stanton

This was a new journey for me. I have never illustrated a family tree before. As I started my sketches, trying to figure out who's who, I realized it was a bit more complicated than I thought. It was easy to get lost on who should go on what limb. But at last, after this evening's approval, here it is.

Side note to those that are interested in the kite and the Latin quote below; these relate to the family's place of origin. The Clague family came from the Isle of Man. 

The "triskelion" or the symbol of the three legs joined at the thigh is on the flag of the Isle of Man. Putting the three legged symbol on a kite was a little bit of creative license, but I later found out that they do a bit of kite flying with the kids at the museum. 

The Latin quote at the bottom is the island's motto translated as "whichever way you throw, it will stand". Upon further research from Wikipedia, I found that the meaning of the motto may have referred to the poor quality of the coinage around the 17th century, which more likely meant "however it is tested it will pass". 

And why an apple tree you might ask? They were farmers that planted orchards and one of their many crops were apples.