On Titles

Why Titles Are Important in My Work

Titles are a part of the work. Coming up with a title for a particular piece is a part of the process. It allows the piece to evolve and develop a personality, something particularly important in my bug series, as I treat the bugs as visual representations of parts of my personality and life.

If I told you the title of a particular piece was “hypomanic” to refer to the state of mild mania associated with type II bipolar disorder, it might make you think about what the word means. It might also make you think I intend the piece to be a rather bleak self-revelation. But the title to the work, shown below, is Super Bee (hypomanic) – in my mind, it relates the superficial subject (the insect) to the emotion, gives you a better idea of what a hypomanic state might feel like. Many people, myself included, often experience this as a period of feeling super human – productive, positive, and creative without quite pushing into a hypermanic state which is generally more disruptive and distracting experience. The title also comes with a bit of humor – I don’t want you to pity me for living with mental illness: I want you to experience it just for a moment to understand me and my world a little better.

Some of my bug titles are even snarkier – and almost all of the humor derives from the title and not from the painting itself (e.g., a painting of an emerald ash borer, the invasive species responsible for destroying the Ash tree population in the United States, is called “Sometimes I can be a real asshole (self-aware)”. It’s not a favorite of mine – definitely not show worthy – but I thought I’d include it here as an example.

But even in my earlier days, I think titles are an important entrypoint into the emotional state of the artist – words are fundamental to how I communicate (and as described in an earlier blog post – how I remember and think and see). I don’t see the words as a narrative – just a gateway into my emotional state. Take a painting from several years ago (maybe in my first year or two of painting) where I collaged and painted into maps from all of the countries around the world I had visited at that point in my life. Without the title, “Passport Control,” you might see this as a geopolitical statement about rearranging the globe – or you might notice the absence of Austro-Pacific nations and wonder why that was (expensive plane ticket/long to-visit list). But once you get the hint of passport control, you start to get an idea where I was when I created the piece.

If I were painting in the spirit of Pollack or Rothko, I might have a different perspective. But from where I’m painting, titles are a part of the piece.