What’s in a name?
How do you go about choosing a name for a piece? Sometimes it’s straightforward and obvious – like the manatee sculpture I simply titled “Manatee”. It didn’t need any additional mystique from a name. It would be like a cow wearing pearls – a bit absurd. Although sometimes absurd can be fun
But what about a neckpiece with three swallows intertwined, flitting and darting among the apple blossoms, reveling in the spring? It just seems like it needs a better name than “Swallows and Apple Blossoms”.
And my new dandelion kaleidoscope? I want to convey that dandelions may be a common weed but they’re precious too… That the sight of them covering a field gives me a lift, like seeing Spring or inhaling sunlight… That they bring me back to being a kid again – making dandelion chains for necklaces and crowns, blowing the seeds into the air and watching them float away in the wind…
So what’s in a name? Does it really add anything to a piece? It’s still the same necklace, the same kaleidoscope. The name is only an added nuance but if it’s the right name, I think that nuance can spark thought and emotion in someone’s mind.
So am I overthinking it?
3 Responses to What’s in a name?
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You are absolutely not overthinking. As a matter of fact, a lot of people, including me, underthink this subject. I am simply bad in picking names but I think it is a big part of the story. The right name for a work makes you stop for a few second and try to relate the name to the art piece. Simply attracts attention and if you are lucky enough, the name will excite some feelings or memories as you said.
Maybe completing a piece and then trying to find a name is just a bad idea. Should be looking for a name while working on it.
Well put, Meltem. I agree – I usually do pick a name afterwards but I also have a list of
name ideas just waiting to be used. Somday I’ll take one of them and design a piece around it.
How about Dusty Fringes, or the word Aubade – defined as a song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning? It just cries out to be a rooster singing his heart out to the sun, or a songbird trilling to the morning….
Christy/Skygrazer
I like Aubade though I didn’t know the meaning of it before. I currently don’t pick any special names for the pieces that does not immediately inspire a name in me. I just pick a descriptive meaning. I am telling I’m not good at this