Do you name your artwork? If you do, what guides your naming decisions and how does that support your artistic goals and focus?
In this episode, I clarify why it’s important for artists to, very purposefully, determine if and how they will title their work. Titles becomes part of the piece, so it’s important to choose a name with as much intention and care as you give your color choices or composition. Titles affect the interpretation, feel, and potential for the work to sell, so it’s no minor decision. Join the conversation to learn…
- Whether or not to name your art.
- How a title changes the meaning and feeling of a piece.
- The various ways a name can make or break a sale.
- How to title your work so it speaks to your specific audience.
- How to use your artistic goals to determine your naming process.
If you’ve not given naming a lot of serious consideration, I think you’ll be surprised at just how powerful a title can be. Grab a cozy beverage and join me for this engaging conversation.
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Transcript:
Ep.008 What’s in a Name
Hello my amazing creative friends, thank you for joining me for The Sage Arts podcast. I’m Sage, your solo-host today. Just me in my lonely closet of a recording studio so come on in and join me, take a seat. I don’t have anything super exciting to share including my choices of beverage, which today is just a tall refreshing glass of water. It turns out that water is the best thing to drink when talking a lot so we’re going to go with that today.
That does also seem to go along with the seemingly simple question I have for you today. But the thing is, the answer to this question can have a big impact on getting your work out there and getting it sold or shown or whatever you are looking for in your version of artistic success.
The question is, do you name all your art pieces, as in do you give them titles, and if you do, how do you name them? What guides your naming decisions?
It might seem like a small thing, that naming is really an afterthought for a lot of people but hang in here with me and you’ll hear just how crazy important your decisions about naming can be, and how to approach it to support your particular artistic purpose.
Before we get into that, I have been advised that, I should bring up just a smidge of housekeeping at the start. So really quickly, if you’re wondering why and how I create this podcast, I do it mostly to connect, to share, to teach, because I have this fervent passion for helping others grow in meaningful ways. If I am achieving that for you in any fashion, if these words get you thinking, push your creativity, if you learn something new, and you’d like to give back, you can be part of my listener support community by just Buying me a Coffee, which is another way of saying, you can contribute through my page at BuyMea Coffee.com/thesagearts. I’ve also had people ask if they can contribute through PayPal so I did set that up and you can do that now by going to the website at thesagearts.com and scroll halfway down the page to find both a Buy me a Coffee and PayPal donation buttons. Time permitting, donations and comments can also get you a shout on the show which is always kind of fun, hearing your name on the digital airwaves.
Also, we have this conversation going about AI, artificial intelligence in art, over on Facebook. The conversation started on my personal Facebook page because I knew my friends would have opinions, but I then shared it to The Sage Arts podcast page so you can chime in there and even click through from the first comment or by clicking on my name Sage Bray Varon to see the whole of the conversation on my personal page. But if you’re listening to this at some future date when that conversation has likely been closed, I still encourage you to go over there and see what the most recent question posed is. This is all at facebook.com/thesageartspodcast. I’ll be using quotes and giving shout outs to various contributors to that conversation so join in. I know you have opinions and I’d love to hear them.
That said, a quick shout out to an anonymous supporter who left a really important note. They said “the ideas heard on your podcast aren’t always new to me after 30+ years in the arts but they are great reminders. I find myself super energized after listening and, yeah I’m still learning new things too.”
Man, I just love that, because it’s true, we do need reminders. I know I’ve been guilty of not reading something or listening to something because I think I already know that information but the fact is we need to be constantly reminded of the knowledge that we have because even if we have the knowledge it doesn’t mean that we’re always using it so sometimes, by being open to the possibility of learning or relearning all kinds of information, serendipity’s gonna step in and say you may know this but I need to remind you that this is something you need to be hearing right now. I even find myself re-reading the magazines and books I’ve published because some of that important information has slipped through the cracks, pushed out by other new things I’ve learned. So, bottom line, just keep learning. It’s a lifelong endeavor that, really, never gets old and actually keeps you young.
So, in the episode about story, Episode 6, I brought up the idea that finding the story in your work can help you in giving names or titles to your pieces. And it got me thinking about the naming issue which was also touched upon in that episode when talking about the Jackson Pollack’s drip painting piece where he originally named it No. 30 then later changed the name to Autumn Rhythm. With that name change, the work becomes, really, two different pieces, particularly when one viewer knows it by the name No. 30 and another just by the name Autumn Rhythm, right? Why? Because the names cause the viewers to see the work differently.
You can see how different a name can make a piece by going online and looking at art work, especially abstract work, without seeing the title first. Like go to google images and type in Abstract, or whatever kind of art you want to look at, then pick an image that draws your eye and try to figure out the story or even just the emotion in the piece. Then click on the image and you should end up somewhere where you can find a name for it. You’ll probably find, with a lot of abstract work, if that’s what you look at, that its numbered like Pollack’s was or is a purely descriptive, like Kandinsky’s famous Squares with Concentric Circles. That’s exactly what it is. But on the other hand, some have really loaded names that can take on amazing new possibilities of meaning because the artist chose to include a more evocative name.
Take a Mondrian, which I think you can all imagine—those red, blue and yellow squares lined up on a grid pattern with different sizes, different spacing. I’m going to post one on Instagram so go to the podcast page @thesageartspodcast on Instagram, and try to find the story in the piece before reading the information I’ll leave there. If Mondrian, titled this particular work with just numbers or a description of its basic visual content, which he often did, you might just come away with a kind of cool, scientific, geometric based view of what he did. But then you’ll see the name—it’s very specific, evoking a really energetic sensation and suddenly it will take on a whole new look because what he painted is going to feel just like what the name infers but without the name, that changed view you end up with would have been almost impossible to reach or guess at.
Of course, that surprise will only be true if you don’t know the piece in the first place so sorry for all you well-informed or Mondrian fans who already probably know which piece I’m talking about.
So, yeah, go look at the piece when you have a moment. I don’t want to tell you more because I want you to go and feel the difference, feel the impact of not knowing anything about what the artist thought and then getting insight into the work just from the name.
It’s a great example of how a piece can be significantly changed by the title the artist gives it. Titles are information and they are part of the work … as much a part as is the color palette, the forms and the composition, I think. What an artist names their work, or doesn’t, can tell you so much about the piece, and often, about the artist as well.
I want to stop here though and note that I’m not saying you have to name your pieces or that informational names are the best way to go. What I want you to take from what I was just illustrating is that a name can be pretty powerful, so you should know when and how to use it to accomplish what you are after with your work.
The truth is, you really don’t have to name your work, ever, unless required by a third party like a show, contest, or gallery, then you’ll want to play by their rules, but only because you want to give your work a chance to be shown and seen through those venues, right? But otherwise, there is nothing in the world of art that says your pieces all have to have names. They don’t. But what I think you should do, is to consciously decide to either name your work or not name it. And that can be on a piece by piece basis or you can make your naming part of your recognized “brand” if you will. Just take some time to figure out what is going to work best for what you are after with your work.
And I’m going to give you the information right now that will help you figure that out.
Let’s start with what choosing not to name your work can do for it. Not naming leaves the interpretation of your work wide open. If you really don’t want to share your particular story, if you want the viewer to come up with their own interpretation and fully insert their own stories into the work, than not directing with language with a title, makes sense.
Now, if that’s what you want and yet you need to name it for a show or gallery or what not, you can use abstract things like what I mentioned a few moments ago, like numbers, nonsense words, or describe the basics of what the piece is like “Red on black” or “Pink lines”.
If you choose to name your work, though, I’d urge you not to be flippant about it. As we’re seeing, names have a lot of power. A name will give the piece some kind of flavor, if it doesn’t wholly direct the viewers idea of the piece and what kind of story their going to form for it. What you name the work infers what you, as the artist, probably find most important about it. Even if the name doesn’t represent the most important aspect in your mind, that’s likely what your viewer will think and they’ll examine the work based off that assumption. And maybe that’s what you want, but if you don’t, be more cautious with the title.
So consider what you want the name to do for the piece. Perhaps you want to leave lots of room for the viewer to insert themselves and their story but don’t want to leave them with nothing to work from like with not naming. Go for ambiguous names or titles with broad possible meanings. Single word names can accomplish this especially adjectives that evoke sensation like “lush” or “bitter”. Or imagery without specifics such as “emergence” or “torn”. Or you might want to go for broad abstract concepts like “fiction” or “larceny”.
But perhaps you want the viewer to step into the very story you are trying to tell. Even if the image is realistic and tells an obvious story, the name can direct the viewer to the core idea or can distract them from the obvious or mundane and give them a glimpse of something deeper. In other words, give them a name that supports a clear story for them to step into while directing them to the part of the story you want them to start with.
Now, how do you decide when it’s best to leave titles ambiguous versus being very specific about it or to give them names at all? Well, those decisions will be based on whether you are focused most on showing, selling or speaking through your work and what you hope to accomplish with that focus.
Names are a particularly important consideration when it comes to selling. A name can make or break a sale. Say, for instance, you use fantastical terms like faerie or magic in a contemporary show full of sophisticated and fashion forward attendees. It might be hard to find the person who appreciates your photo of castle ruins titled “Ghost of the Round Table”, or your Creatures of the Night Vampire ceramics. Likewise, if you send a portfolio with a sculpture titled “If there were no guns” to a gallery in a very conservative, pro-gun area, you might, figuratively, kill your chance to sell your work there.
If selling is your primary goal, you want to choose names that speak to your buyer in intimate ways. And you can even change the names of the same pieces depending on where you’re selling.
So, for instance, if you’re at a science fiction/fantasy convention… fantastical names can make any piece magical to that audience. So, a painting of a road leading to mountain range can be “The Pass to the Valhalla” or a necklace of simple blue drop shaped beads can be the “Elven Tears necklace”. But at a street fair, you’ll probably want to appeal to a more general audience with more common concepts and imagery. So, the same mountain painting might be better titled something like “The Road of Hope and Fear” and the necklace could be renamed, the “Spring Rain” necklace. Can you see how the name change might help the sales?
The downside to naming solely based on potential customers is that you have to ignore some or all of your own intention and story in those pieces, but then, if your main goal is to sell, and the name gives the buyer joy or adds meaning to the piece for them, both of you get what you want. So it might feel like you’re literally selling out, but, in this case, that’s a good thing because it fulfills your goal to sell and makes another person happy.
If you rally against gearing the names of your pieces to the market, then you probably want to examine whether sales is or should be your primary goal, or if you’re in the right market. If you need to make the money, and your work and their names aren’t jiving with your present customer base, then I’d go on a search for new markets, ones that would respond to the work, and the names that feel true and authentic to you.
Now, if your main focus is on expressing yourself through art, then embrace what names can do to help you communicate what you want to say. Carefully thought out names can even add to voice of the work. With recognizable imagery—people, scenes, objects—story and meaning can usually be drawn without a name to help, right? but if given a name that is unexpected or refers to unseen emotion or the artist’s specific experiences, then those can add tremendous depth and dimension to the piece. They can also push the viewer to ask the questions that are important to you but not always thought of by the viewer like “Why create this specific image? What do these things mean to the artist?”
Let me see if I can talk you through how that works. The title of the road and mountain painting at the street fair I was using as an example, could just have easily just been named for the actual mountain painted. That kind of naming is pretty conventional for landscape and would have worked just fine at a street fair. But with a title like “Of Hope and Fear” the viewer is much more likely to stop and ask themselves questions like “Where is hope and fear in the painting?” and to answer that for themselves, they’ll look at it more thoroughly in order to find it, asking, “Is it in the quality of the light against the dark shadow shapes? Is it the long road versus the intimidating mountains?” Suddenly, the viewer is engaged in a way they would not have been by the mountain’s name alone. They spend time with the work, sussing out your meaning, growing a connection to it, and to you, as they compare their related experiences with what they surmise you saw that made you think of hope and fear. It can help them see the landscape the way you saw it, maybe bringing up the emotion and drama you felt that drove you to paint it. It makes your work more memorable, even to the point, that the viewer may want to bring it home. Whatever you can do to get potential customers to spend more time with your work, the more likely they are to want to own it.
Of course, you can toss everything I just told you and completely leave your viewer and audience out of the mix and create names that just make you happy, that best represent your intention or the story in, or behind, the piece. Name your work, (or not), to just say what you want it to say and let the chips fall where they may.
Honestly, that’s my usual approach these days but then I’m primarily creating collections for myself and for books whose concepts haven’t quite been fully formed enough to know who my audience is yet or what exactly I want to say with them. The names of my photographs right now, are chosen to help tell the story I found with the camera. It’s part of what I want the work to communicate because communication is my focus right now.
But in the past, as a working artist whose sales paid the bills, I absolutely named my work based on who I was trying to sell to. It still told stories I wanted to tell but I would shift the story to a different type of world or genre, whatever best suited my potential buyers. I remember selling earrings I called Celestial Windows at a show heavy on the metaphysical stuff and then I sold the same design at a fantasy convention as something like Night Fae Earrings. It sounds a little hokey now but it worked. It helped the pieces speak to the buyers in a language that meant something special to them. And I couldn’t deny the results. I usually sold really well when I did this. If I got lazy and didn’t change up the names on the sales tags, I saw the difference. So I stopped being lazy when I realized the naming contributed to my sales.
There’s one area where I don’t worry about naming much and that’s on social media. Imagery is really king there and people don’t seem to read text so much, especially on Instagram and Pinterest. But I do provide background on the piece, so, really, the title’s job is replaced by actual conversation there, at least for me. If someone likes the work well enough to read what I wrote, then why not get them to spend a bit more time with me by reading my thoughts. I have the room to do that, right? But if social media is a major source of sales for you, I’d keep up with the naming, maybe even put it in text on the images along with leaving some of your thoughts.
Because the name really does become part of the piece, not matter where its shown or shared, and that name is just going to add to the interest and understanding of the work and you, if chosen with intention and care.
So, I hope this conversation has given you some food for thought on naming your work. Let me know if there is some consideration for naming I didn’t mention or if you have a cool story about success, or a lack of success, because of how you named your work or didn’t. I’d love to hear it and I’ll work those comments into future podcasts with a shout out to you and your artwork along with it. Because we are all in the same type of boat and it really helps to share and hear the experiences of others traveling these same paths.
You can send your naming related thoughts as well as any comments, criticism, or questions to me by reaching out on the website thesagearts.com, go to the contact page and use the email form or even leave a voice message using the red button you’ll find there.
And as mentioned at the beginning, if you are enjoying these episodes and find value for yourself and your art in what I’m doing here, consider giving back through my Buy Me a Coffee page at buymeacoffee.com/theSagearts, on theSagearts.com website where halfway down the home page, there’s Buy me a Coffee and PayPal donation buttons.
Well, that it’s for today. I have to say I’ve had one busy week lining up all kinds of guests and content and there’s just so many amazing things coming up in the next month or two so stay tuned. Hit the follow button for this show on your podcast player, if you haven’t already done so, and, if so inclined, tell people about what you’re discovering here so they can come join us and boost their creative endeavors as well.
In the meantime, as always, I encourage you to keep your muse well feed with story and fun new experiences, stay true to yourself and your weirdness, and we’ll see you next time on The Sage Arts Podcast.
