I designed Matriarch in honor and memory of my amazing maternal grandmother—a typeface, like she was, that is cheerful, warm and classic.
We found a list with each of my grandmother’s eight children and five grandchildren and the rose hybrid that she assigned each of us. Her own handwriting still inspires me! With the list was a diagram of the garden, meticulously coded and showing where each of her hybrids were planted.
I painted a gouache illustration of Ganna’s rose garden showing each of the labelled beds and which gardener tended which bed (my grandmother was in charge of the Fulton bed.) The numbers refer to the family tree showing the birth order of Ganna’s eight children and the first five grandchildren. By the time of her death in November of 2006, she had ten additional grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
And last, a photo with our Matriarch atop the steps (I’m on the bottom left with my amazing dog, Coco. Of COURSE all the dogs had to be in the photo too!)
