What’s in a Name? Choosing Titles for Artwork
If you’re like me, you like to know the name of artworks.
When looking at a work made by another artist, a title gives me a sense of what the artist was thinking about when they made the work. It’s a point of reference between the artist and me.
In a similar way, naming my own work helps me understand my work more clearly.
It can sometimes be a challenging process, just like making art can be, but a good title offers another potential point of connection with those who see my work.
Adding to the experience
Windscape
When adding a title to a painting or a series of paintings, my goal is to add to the experience of viewing the work without giving it a literal explanation. A person looking at an artwork brings with them their own history, thoughts and perspective. It’s important to me as an artist to leave space in the name of a painting for a someone looking at my work to bring their own interpretation to what they are seeing.
This is why I often fix on a word or phrase that lends a little mystery to the work.
I once named an abstract landscape “Windscape”. I chose the neologism “Windscape” over the more conventional “Windy Day”, because for me the word “Windscape” creates a sense of intrigue, a sensation of wind or a suggestion of a landscape sculpted by wind.
Either way it leaves more room for imagination than the alternative. That’s what I’m after.
Strategies to employ when naming a painting
Conceptual considerations
Occasionally I’m lucky and the name of a series of work comes to me as part of the conceptual underpinnings of the process.
In my last year of an art degree as a mature student, my final project was inspired by a set of vintage encyclopaedia. Speaking to my faculty adviser, Susan, I recalled to her how these book had been found while clearing out a house for a neighbour.
The volumes were found stacked in piles on the floor of the basement, and I imagined how, years ago, they had once been loved just as I had loved the encyclopaedia collection in my parents’ home. I grabbed the nearest book to hand and began flipping through the “F” volume, jumping from entry to entry. I went from “falconry, fencing, finance to Finland” all in one sitting. Susan replied that the string of words was an inspired name for the series.
Those words became the title of a series of 36 collages based on my recollection of poring over encyclopaedia entries for hours as a child.
Each collage became a metaphor for a book from the encyclopaedia set, named in volumes and numbers, just like the books themselves.
(You’ll find an image of one of the collages in this series in the blog post entitled “New year, new start, new word”.)
Process allusions
Sometimes the title of a series comes from the process of making the art itself.
A series of mixed media watercolours with collage was named “Water, Marks, Chance, Intuition” as a direct reference to the process of making the images: Water for the paint, marks for the brush strokes, chance for a sprinkling of collage “confetti” and intuition to know when the collage “confetti” needed repositioning!
The paintings in the “February Blues” series were completed in February and were influenced by the deep and frozen cold of winter. Rendered in shades of blue and white and grey, the title references the colour and the wintery feel of the work, and perhaps a little hint of melancholy for those wishing for warmer weather.
February Blues 4, Ann Roth
Up on the Roof, Ann Roth
Oblique references
Oftentimes, when naming individual pieces of work, I make an oblique reference to something within the painting itself.
It could be colour as in “Kelly Over Oxford” or a small piece of collage as in “Up On the Roof”. Sometimes it’s a bit more personal like “Settled at Last” which refers to the ups and downs of making that particular painting.
Kelly Over Oxford, Ann Roth
Settled at Last, Ann Roth
Search deeply and research thoughtfully
Sometimes I’m not certain what a series is about and I have to search a little deeper within myself and my experience to settle on a name for a series.
This often involves referring to the notebook where I keep a running list of interesting words and potential painting titles that conjure feelings or imagery that pique my interest.
I often use a thesaurus to source words that resonate with me. This process can lead down a wonderful rabbit hole of imagination and connections that I otherwise wouldn't make.
It often takes quite some time before hitting upon an idea that is meaningful to me and is right for the paintings themselves.
Once an overarching theme for a series has been settled upon, I build on the concept by choosing titles for each one of the paintings that relate back to the initial idea.
This was the process used for the “Marchland” series. The title of each painting refers back to the central theme of transitional spaces or conditions.
A painting isn’t completed until it has a name
Naming a series of artwork as well as giving titles to each of the individual paintings that make up the series is an important part of the work that I do as an artist.
I think of it as another part of the finishing process just like painting the edges of panels or varnishing the paintings. It’s another step in readying the work to share with a wider audience, and my aim is always to choose a title that offers a further level of complexity to the work, while leaving room for others to see in it what they will.
Further reading suggestions
This a quirky little book entitled Dictionary of the Strange, Curious, & Lovely by Robin Devoe, is a collection of beautiful English words, “many…not well known and seldom employed”. Tara Leaver has a comprehensive guide for artists on ideas to use when naming artwork and Nicholas Wilton has written about how to approach titling artwork to increase chances of selling it.
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