Untitled - Such a non-title! It seems a bit lazy, the artist finished the work and couldn’t be bothered to give the viewer anything to make an initial engagement. Once we give a glance to the work in a gallery or museum, we look at the label - name of the artists, date, medium, then….what? No title? Why not? Lazy artist? Confused artist? Even a number would be helpful (maybe).
Thankfully, most artists will title their work - the untitled pieces aren’t frequent….but titles give the viewer one way to engage and start a conversation with the work - Summer Day by the River - good, we know it was summer, during the day and beside a river - helpful, especially if its abstracted beyond recognition! Two Girls on a Horse - well, if it’s one boy with a dog - perhaps the labels got mixed up? Or it was a joke? At least we have something to think about!
The Constitution of Silence
Through the First Gate
At the Still Point
Sometimes giving a title to our work comes easy - themes or a series will provide a flow of potential titles - I like to write down ideas as they come to me and have a list to pull from when they are completed. Other times the title will evolve during the creation, starting out with word fragments and finally coalescing into a completed phrase.
Other times it takes a while, it might hang on the wall getting looked at, stared and perhaps yelled at? I rarely ask for input, for me, it has to come from inside - not external suggestions.
Burquete
Huesca
Orisson
My friends and I thought it would be helpful to share some ideas that have worked for us:
I used a book of poetry by TS Eliot to inspire me for a collage/markmaking series titled Timeless Moments. I loved the “word rich” phrases that Eliot used and I made a long list of potential titles as I read through the book. Titles such as: Through the First Gate, The Constitution of Silence or At the Still Point resonated strongly.
My Casco Vello series focused on old villages (Casco Vello means “old villages in Gallego - the language of northern Spain) so it was an easy pick to find village names that appealed to me. Some of them I have visited and others I chose because the name appealed to me!
From a Distance - a collaborative series, with friend Lori Sokoluk, used phrases that might have been the first few words penned in a letter ….. After all, the series focused on correspondance of art that we exchanged during the pandemic.
Location again played a part in my Salish Sea series, but I combined local coves, bays and channels with “action” words: Coming to Sturdies Bay, Near Turn Point, Across the Sound Towards Mayne.
I created a series of 10” x 10” textile collage pieces with white, black and some red. They included mark making and stitch and also a bit of asemic text. They seemed like little snips of textile notes - hence the title Notations - but I did number them all....
You Might Not Remember Me
Collaboration with Lori Sokoluk and Susan Purney Mark
Sharing Some Good News
Collaboration with Lori Sokoluk and Susan Purney Mark
Remember That Time
Collaboration with Lori Sokoluk and Susan Purney Mark
And here’s more - so many good answers that really resonated with me that I wanted to share with you.
Rachael McCampbell - https://rachaelmccampbell.com had some ideas about poetry and song lyrics:
Mary Oliver’s poetry is often a great source for my titles. In one case, she wrote, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.” Intriguing but not what I wanted. From that I borrowed, “A box full of darkness” but switched out darkness for light—“A box full of light.” And from an Oliver poem, “A bride married to amazement,” I shortened it to become, “Married to Amazement.”
From Leonard Cohen’s song, “Villanelle for Our Time,” I used two lines from the first stanza for two different painting titles: “From Bitter Searching of the Heart” and “We rise to play a greater part.” Both of those were used for my equine art. I wanted a title that wasn’t literal but made you think.
Read more of what Rachael shared here: https://rachaelmccampbell.com/how-do-you-title-your-art/
Near Turn Point
Coming to Sturdies Bay
Across the Sound Towards Mayne
Nan Dawkins - https://www.nandawkins.com - sent me some ideas that took me in another direction - metaphors and someones expression - all about communication and what we want tos ay to the viewer.
My first thought when I am drawn to a particular scene
I try to be very intentional and thoughtful about why I'm responding to a particular scene. Often a random thought will come to me that I end up using as a title. For example, I painted a sunrise scene on Lake Superior in Michigan just after I found out that a loved one's cancer was in remission. It was early in the morning, the sun was just up over the water and I asked myself the usual question before I started my study: "Why am I drawn to this?" The answer came to me immediately: "Because it really is going to be ok"; this became the title of the painting.
What the subject's expression communicates
I often title a portrait as simply the name of the subject, but sometimes there is an expression that seems to speak volumes, and I go with that instead. For example, one of my musician portraits (of a child) is titled Contemplative Composition.
A metaphor or an image in my mind
Sometimes when I am in the process of painting, I realize that the scene is a metaphor for something in the dusty corners of my brain. For example, in "Sunday Service" a tiny church sits on the dock of a harbor in Brittany. A line of boats are docked in the harbor, just in front of the church. This scene called to mind Sunday services at the church of my childhood and the faithful lined up in the pews. In the painting, a lone boat is anchored in the foreground of the painting, symbolizing separation.
You can see Nan’s art and blog post “the stories behind portraits and why they matter”: https://www.nandawkins.com/blog
Notations #24
Notations #22
Notations #18
Tracey Hewitt, an Australian artist and life coach - https://www.traceyhewitt.com - made some good comments about saving potential titles, in a notebook/journal or a digital app and taking time to sit with the piece and listen to what it is tellling you.
Her other Ideas include:
Listen up! Overheard snippets of conversation can yield the juiciest title names! I learned this trick from Pamela Bates who once had a painting titled "You Drive, I'll Sit In The Back With The Dog." Doesn't that title make you yearn to see that painting?!
Try setting an intention to notice phrases that prick your imagination wherever you go, whatever you read. One day I was reading an article about quantum physics on Facebook (I know, did I even just write Quantum Physics and Facebook in the same sentence?!) and the phrase "Dust Wakes Up And Thinks About Itself" - which was a snippet from the authors thoughts about the explosion (big bang) of consciousness that created the universe as we know it - leapt off the page at me. A perfect title for a series I'd been working on about the ineffable; the things we sense but cannot see!
There are many other great ideas and awesome art on Tracey’s blog: https://www.traceyhewitt.com/blog
And how about you? How do you find titles for your work? Any tricks or methods to share?
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