Words have power and when they are paired up with values, I think they have super powers.

When the Balkenbusch family shared their family motto, I felt encouraged.  As I wrote it over and over, I felt empowered.

What a sweet thing to have in their home. Something clearly outlining what is important to the family as a whole. Something that outline general traits of family members.  Something that made that sense of belonging tangible. 

The tree has 4 branches for each member of the family.  I like to think of the trunk as the connection to the roots and where they came from. 
In the piece, the tree, the title “Can you identify?” and the scripty “Balkenbusch” form a triangle that make a container for most of the verses.  I learned that triangles symbolize “change” so extra meaning there.

 The tree is an abundant tree, with olive leaves that represent their Greek heritage too.  Each family’s initials, their state of origin, and where they live now is all there too.  Can you see the car, the airplane, and the boat? There are also a couple German icons to honor that legacy. Yes, they are all part of the tree. 

You may not be able to see it in the picture, but the underpainting has many tones ending in a green a blue dark rich background.  So, when the light shines on it, it has depth.   

As you see, there were many key elements that needed to be incorporated, so there were a few rough ideas to go through:

So, we borrowed and picked the parts for the refined draft and this is what they transformed to. The trees are rough sketches and I added 3 German icons, 3 Greek icons, the 3 important states, and their 4 initials.  And made the leaves olive leaves to also connect to their heritage.

It was a matter of putting all the pieces together in one and make it shine. This was the final mockup to be approved to move onto the painted version. And the moment to add the last icons.

I identify, do you?