10×10″, Oil on Panel, Title: “Just try to leave a thought unthought,” he said. “Can’t do it, can you?”
For a long time I didn’t believe in titling work. I thought perhaps, it was even a bit pretentious. But of course, I was doing mostly plein-air(e) work and that can just have location for the title.
I think, as a student, as an urban sketcher, and later a teacher, my work lived in a technical realm.
Non-fiction, if you will.
These days, I’d like to think there’s more storytelling. I want to hint a bit at what I’m thinking, but also, play a little game. How does the work change as the title changes? The visual experience is altered by the context of a title. And too – I think we should take some time with titles. Wait a bit, live with the work, and the title might reflect how it makes you feel.
So, sometimes I change the title of a work, after enough time has gone by and I end up knowing them better.
But one on-the-spectrum-quirk of mine is this: I Don’t Like Title Case.
If a title is going to be a tiny story, I’d rather see it formatted for the page. Including quotation marks and punctuation, and correct spelling. (Not my strong point).
Sometimes I worry about the strangest things, don’t I?
