Tuesday, April 24, 2012

To title or not to title...

I thought I would chat about something today, 
since my painting is not totally finished!
I read an article on "To title or not to Title" 
An interesting article that shows how a title
may influence the viewer.

Thought I would share my personal take on titles...  Personally
for me it is all about painting.    Sometimes while I am painting a
title comes to me but most of the time for me it is the painting
that matters not a title.   I tend to favor the the obscure titles
that require the viewer to ask me what the hang I mean! 
Ones that simply tickle my own funny bone.   Like
"Man Fixin Himself". 
I also like long rambling titles... 
"Trees at Night, During Full Moon in December". 
Which leaves little for you to ponder.
My manager/wife likes short 2-3 word titles that fit easily
on her labels.  She tends to be a bit stuffy with the whole thing,
might I dare say lacking in the humor department! 
But a good business head.

For the daily blogs it is just too much to be that creative
each day so we simply go with the old series... 
"2012 Shaker Series #5".
I also often  ask for clients opinion on titles because
I enjoy seeing your ideas and I think you get a kick
out of it when I go with your suggestion.

I can seriously say I never gave any thought to my
clients not buying my painting because of the title.   And
frankly if your shelling out enough cash I will rename
it for you, I can be bought!!  Just don't tell Linda! 
I think my clients are more savvy than to not buy a
painting because of the title I gave it.   And maybe my
paintings speak for themselves and a title is unimportant.
But maybe I am out of touch with you...
really... what are your thoughts??

On to very important news.  Just got in from a track meet
with Ephrata and both our boys and girls won! 
Doing very well.


email comments:
Andy, or probably Linda reading this,
We have about 12-14 prints and 1 small daily original, and my wife and I sitting here cannot remember the title of a single one. Maybe if we wondered around and looked at them we might remember a couple. Of course maybe it’s an age thing. LOL
I have never thought the title of a piece of art was important.
After all, isn’t there a painting named by the artist called “Arrangement”
I actually had to look up the original name for “Whistler’s Mother.
Just my two cents
Brydon (mike) Lidle

I like short titles for paintings.........allows me to personalize it to "me" (selfish sounding I know)
MBB

1 comment:

Mimi said...

i agree with you. The title is just part of the gift wrap. If you don't like the title, you can change it. I've sold a few paintings where the buyer said "oh that looks just like such and such a place." Well, that wasn't what I was painting, but who cares. In the owner's mind it will always mean something special, totally different from my conception. Everyone's happy.