Words, words, words: Does a title make the art?

Persistent Weed © Patricia Pinsk

There are many artists and creatives that believe that naming artwork takes too much time and effort, and that their art can stand on its own without a fancy title. Others believe that a title helps the audience understand and connect with the art. This in turn helps to exhibit or market it.

With the art in this blog post, I could title it "Abstract Number 85", but that seems a bit dull.

I could also cheat and use the Abstract art generator to come up with such titles as “Conceptual sequence of desire” or “The crippled sentiment’ which are a bit better (kinda, sort of).

If anything, this generator is a fun way to brainstorm, and gets the creative juice flowing.

So how do you come up with a great title?

Look at your finished work, as well as your rough notes. Ask yourself “How does this art make you feel?” Think about snippets of conversations that you heard, quotes from movies or books. Jot down words or phrases that first come to mind that connect you to your artwork that’s in front you. Use a thesaurus or dictionary to help wordsmith the perfect title.

A few key points to consider when writing a title are:

• Think about your audience (age, culture);
• Caution on the side of humour (is it interpreted properly), and
• Ask what you want viewers to see in your artwork (what is the main theme).

The great thing about looking at art – be it an abstract installation, or a representational illustration, is that there is some room for the viewer to use their imagination, and to question what they are looking at. That is, what’s the untold story?

I believe the best titles offer a bit of intrigue, don’t give away the punchline, or overstate the obvious. As noted in What's in a (painting's) name? … a poor title, not the art quality or subject, can place art in the rejection heap solely because it doesn’t engage the viewer.  So regardless of the type of art you create, take the time to give it a proper name. Otherwise, you risk not having your work properly seen, or worse yet, making it into listings such as Worst book titles and covers ever.

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