Most of my new work has names that I easily associate with the piece.  For example, every time I show someone the photo on the left, they say it reminds them of octupuses so I called it “Octopi” – one of the three plural forms of octopus.

The other day a friend asked about one of my pieces by using the title I gave it on my website and – oops – I had trouble remembering which one of a half dozen possible pieces it might be. Clearly I  did not put enough thought into coming up with a suitable, and memorable (at least for me) name for that specific piece.

Thankfully, James Gurney just completed a series of three posts on his blog about the importance of titles. He is talking about paintings but his tips are spot on for any artist.  I especially took to heart his suggestion “Make sure you recognize the piece from the title.”

Gurney’s post was especially timely since I just added three new pieces to my website and have yet to name them.  I briefly considered naming them “Twist 2,” “Torque 3” and “Wrap 4” but that would be such a cop out!

 

 

 

 

I will come up with titles soon. But I need to put some thought into it!

James Gurney’s Titles for Paintings, Part 3