The Name Game

Isn't the internet great?  Where else can you find the innermost thoughts and feelings of your closest 3,000 friends (tweet:  I washed my hair today!  FaceBook Wall: Mixing up another batch Capn Moorgan rocks!!)  Another great thing about cyberspace is the many opportunities for you to show your art.  There's Bold Brush and Artist Daily; Facebook, MySpace and of course, your own web sites and really a myriad of other places to see and be seen.  While you were looking at all the artwork, have you ever noticed a painting, and I'll make this up-- say of a young girl seen from the shoulders up, pretty little thing, but with a nondescript background and let's say the painting is called something like Dance Class?  Well, I guess the painter knew little Tiffany was in dance class, but beyond the title, nothing in the painting would lead us to know that.

The painting above is named Summer Jobs, done by yours truly.  Now, I'll be the first to admit, I am not perfect.  (As a matter of fact in a recent NBC news/Gallup Poll of the mathematically impaired, 68% said I was not perfect, 43% said me and perfect weren't even in the same zip-code, and the remaining 52.5% were undecided)  So I admit it, I'm horrible at naming paintings.  I never know if I should be obvious or "artistic".  Sometimes I try to be cute.  I've named paintings for the date I painted them, like September 29th, or Ground Hog Day (real names!)  I've tried to be poetic, like the painting I named Thunder In The Gloaming.  The painting I've shown above was another of those where I thought the title told it all, but in reality only I knew what was going on.

Until recently, I lived in a small fishing village on the coast of Maine named Cundy's Harbor.  I even worked for a spell on a lobster boat.  (More on that in the future)  And I've seen those two young gentlemen fishing for lobster in the Harbor for at least two summers.  I thought it was cool how they donned the full Lobsterman regalia, then headed out in their 11foot long skiff, hand hauling about a dozen traps.  They made some money, but they had to work hard for it.  Now look at the painting.  See a lobster trap anywhere?  If it wasn't for me telling you that the young man on the right was pulling up a trap, would you know?  I mean, the kid could be hauling up a mermaid.  Could you guess the young man on the bow was waiting to put rubber bands on the claws of whatever "keepers" they may have caught?  I knew what they were doing.  But I am the only one.  In retrospect, I might have added a few more clues to help the viewer figure it out too.  I guess these days hindsight is called a "teachable moment".  Too bad I can't go back and fix it, though.  Darn thing sold.   

So, what does all this mean?  Are names important or not?  I'll answer with another question.  What is a painting, an image or a name?  A painting can have a thousand titles, but it's image remains the same.  So, I guess I can name my next painting Barn in a field of hay that has been partially mowed with some trees over on the right on a nice July day.  You'll certainly know what it's about, and it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?