I’ll Take a Side Order of Titles, Please

One of the pleasures I get creating a new piece of art is coming up with titles. People love my titles. It is the truth. I sometimes get more comments on a title than I do the actual piece. I think that is because, to some degree, everyone knows something about their own language and the words they use, even if they aren’t avid readers or great spellers. Funny words, play on words, and sounds that are almost words, are all part of our daily interactions with others. We misspeak, fail to speak, interrupt, and studder through our conversations until something like what we want to say dribbles out and becomes part of the conversation landfill. When I was making pieces that had a more serious tone, coming up with a title was frankly a chore and, in the end, usually felt unnecessary. Avoiding that added ambivalence, many artists title their works in numerical series, or on the back of the canvas or print, or not at all.

Back in the day when my art was making a lot of jumps and starts, I knew I was going to discover a visual form, some process, that allowed me the freedom to play with words, both in my work and in my titles. If you go to my web site, you can scan through the titles and see I have plenty of fun with them. Even if sometimes they don’t make sense, the word combinations form comical sounds that fit into the spirit of the piece and add another level of participation. On that note, some of my titles are more narrative; some are silly and nonsensical.

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One piece that might serve as a good example is Inuit Crosses the Bearing Straight. Here we find a tiny blobbish figure, somewhat ungainly in appearance, trying to tightrope walk across a thin line. He bears no resemblance to any kind of Native American Indian as the name implies, but it is the nation’s name, Inuit, (into it, intuitive, I knew it) that conjures up all kinds of poetic possibilities. The figure is making his way across, “bearing straight ahead.” And what other way would he go? Backwards, towards Russia? If he falls off the line, the confusing scribbles below foretells all kinds of ruination. To me, the funny part of this drawing is that this little scribble person, walks a line of responsibility. He may be a liaison between two continental areas holding them together, some sort of hired explorer/diplomat that balances the divide between nations, or between abstraction and realism, between pea soup and sea poop.

And here’s ‘nother thing. When I come up with a title, I must be careful not to spoil the piece by trying too hard to explain it through the title. That can insult the viewer’s intelligence like a bad line in a movie. Every work of art stirs a cognitive response from the viewer, a response the artist has no control over. Titles must be evocative, interesting, simple, and at least in my mind, entertaining. It’s tricky to do all those things, but I have a lot of fun trying.

When I used a school lunch tray in No Matter How Good or Bad You Are, Just Pant, I purposely misspelled “paint,” because, to me, you are going to say paint anyway, whether I spell it right or not. However, the student I had that inspired this title did not like art at all, but finally concluded that no matter who you are, no matter how good or bad you art at art, you should just paint anyway. True, but he misspelled paint, and wrote “pant.” Breathe, he was saying, just breathe. Relax, order a large side of titles, and enjoy the meal!