About Titles

It's one thing to successfully create a piece of artwork, yet another to find an appropriate title for it. So many artists struggle with this, myself included and titles are so important. They can often mean the difference between selling a painting and not. For instance, several years ago I painted a series of humorous cats called Catitudes. One painting depicted a cat mouth wide open looking as if he was singing loudly into a flower blossom and I titled it 'Caterwauling'. I thought it was a perfect title. When the painting didn't sell I was confused. Finally I asked a good friend what she thought when she looked at it. She told me she didn't know what to think. She wasn't familiar with the term caterwauling and wasn't clear what the cat was doing. I changed it to 'Karaoke Cat Style' and someone snapped it right up. The quest for a good title never ends. I often see artists on social media asking friends to come up with titles for them and in return they will receive a free print or some such. Not a bad ploy(!)and some folks have the knack for titles. Recently I read an excellent blog post by Deborah Moss full of tips for coming up with great titles. It's well worth a read.

This collage is titled 'Signs of Life'. I wanted to include feathers in this collage which then gave it a Native American vibe. With March the harbinger of Spring I thought of the icy creeks thawing and beginning to run again and the bears waking from hibernation. The bear is the Native American heartline symbol which is the breath of life. The three feathers in the circle is my own symbol for family as are the three turquoise circles. This is what it means to me. However someone else could see something entirely different and that's fine. It's wonderful actually.