Name Game – How to Title your Art
I love giving titles to things. Naming is an activity I love and I do it fast and without much effort. I name my art pieces, my blog posts and all of my art journals! And I take pride in them, both as titles to what they represent and as stand-alone entities that should “say” something or be plain beautiful…
Giving your art a name/title is to me a creative and fun game where I exercise both imagination and humour. Often I end up with what is in the serendipity of my thoughts at the moment when I?m typing the title. I seldom give it much thought so I?m not the best person to give advice on how to do it. So this post is not really a how-to even though it is?
How to name your art then? The best way to find out what you like, as so many times in life, is to go about and practice! To me it?s a bit like writing poetry; I just play with words. And what could be more fun, right?
Mostly it is something that jumps into my mind. It could be a phrase, a word game, a song title (or a line from a song playing on the radio!), a quote? anything! Often of course it has something to do with the art itself. What I?m talking about more specifically today is my Daily Art Cards. Many of the Art Cards are collages and many of the collages have words and text all over. These have sometimes been named with one or several of those words, but not always. Most of the titles are in English, but not all of them.
I?ve done one Daily Art Card for each day this year and all of them have titles! That?s a lot of titles if you consider how long this year has been going on now. And actually I?m dead tired (yes I admit it) of naming right now. I still love making the cards, but my name supplier (left side of the brain?) is dry. I have several cards without name right now, and that feels sad! It?s kind of unfair to the poor collages and drawings that has not been properly welcomed into the world yet, because naming (at least when it comes to children) was always a way of saying ?welcome to the [art] community wee one!? Would you like to help? Please feel free to submit your suggestions below, for one or all of the cards. I?ll be cruel and pick the one I like the best for each card in an upcoming post. Titles on these cards can be a sentence, a word or what ever you think of first when you see it.
Be playful, be wicked, LOL at yourself; be you!
1. 081024, 2. 081022, 3. 081021, 4. 081017 (click on the date to get a bigger view of the cards)
5. 081020, 6. 081019, 7. 081018, 8. 081016
Fabric ones! 9. 081015, 10. 081014, 11. 081010, 12. 081009
13. 081028, 14. 081025, 15. 081026, 16. 081027
17. 081029, 18. 081030, 19. 081031, 20. 081011
21. 081012, 22. 081007, 23. 081003, 24. 081023
Guess this almost every card this month… please help!
Just remember to place a number before your title so I know which one you?re naming, for example ?1) Name of the Card, 2) Another Daily Card, 3) Third Name of Card 3, and so on?. If your title is not picked don?t be sad, see it as an exercise for naming your own art in the future. Have fun! And a big thank you if you take the time to help me!
I have no idea how other artists go about naming their art pieces but I would be interested to know! Feel free to share your thoughts on that too! Hope you’re voting too!! ;-)
Recently I accidentally named one of Marisa Haedike’s paintings which was fun! :-)
Hi Hanna !
Thanks for the fun naming game this morning ! I love naming things too, especially people ! I have nicknames for everyone (sometimes the people know about them and sometimes they don’t ;-) ) I have to say though, I do not always name my art… I don’t know what that means…?
It must be a challenge to name a piece every day! I tend to be “punny” or like play on word titles so it’s so okay if you don’t like the titles I chose for some of your pieces. I had fun doing it anyway !
081021 Love Flight
081027 Talk to the Hand
081029 Eye See Says the Blind Man
081003 Whoo Knows ?
081010 The Best Jeans I Ever Owned
I am sure it will be lots of fun seeing what people come up with ! I will check back later !’
Thanks again and cheers !
Kim
Love them Kim, thanks!
Did you get me a nickname? I want one too! ;-)
6. 081016 L?ves the autumn bliss. Lite svengelska men roligt…
16. 081027 Hands up!
23. 081003 Bert-?ke Warg
24. 081023 You and me Song (?r egentligen en titel p? en Wannadies l?t men det f?rsta som d?k upp i mitt huvud.)
Haha, tack Maria! Var Bert-?ke Warg ugglan, i… Hedwig? Hmm… den ?r en ?ber-kluring!
Hanna, I started naming in the card’s comments themselves before I read the rest of your post- sorry. Would this be a better way so you don’t have to go through everyone’s post for each card? Let me know and I’ll re-do them.
Lin
Lin,
it will be easier if I get the names in a list here in my blog but don’t worry, you don’t have to re-do yours! I’ll check them out at flickr. Thanks for helping Lin! :-)
Jepp, i Fr?n a till ? var han ugglan!
I have to say, there are some amazing paintings in this blogentry!
Oh Hanna this can be sometimes very dificult to name a piece of art.
Sometimes I do not get further then the colors I used. Not very unique. I’ll give it a go.
21 Kiss the Prince
22 Bambi Love
01 Can’t use my eyes they roll out
Imelda,
thanks for helping out, love the romantic suggestions! I too give my art color names, but because I use pink a lot… hehe, it becomes a bit boring after a while! :-) Take care! I’m still loving the book you sent!
Hej Hanna! Det ?r sent, men jag tar de f?rsta tolv nu i alla fall:
01. 081024 Moster Maria
02. 081021 Fj?riln vingad …
03. 081022 Mattskuren
04. 081017 Wow – it’s NOW!
05. 081020 Lillan l?ser
06. 081019 Pippi p? gr?sl?k
07. 081018 Ugly uggla
08. 081016 And the leaves they are a-falling …
09. 081015 What would it be but a joyful soul
10. 081014 Notorious
11. 081010 Raspberry Clouds
12. 081009 Lace Lettuce
Om Du gillar dem, kommer jag tillbaka imorgon eller s? och tar mig en dust med de ?vriga ;-)!
03: Sometimes You Just Need to Breathe
07: The Tears of a Rainbow Maker
09: Lacy Illusions
10: Blooming Blue Jeans
11: Healthy Wisdom
12: Saving Life, Living Green or Green Living
14: Weaving a Nest of Thread
15: Joyful Souls
16: Color Change
17:The Respect of Now
18:The Playfulness of Being Wise
19: Herb of Bird
20: A leading thought of many dreams
21: Blue Flight of Wisdom
22: Searching for Wild Roses
23: Sweet Admirer
24: Overwhelmingly Concerned
25: Trying to find her way or searching for truth
26: Anwsered Prayer
27: Idol Hands
28: The Breathe of Spring
29: The Power of Inspiring Thoughts
30: Peacefully Creating
31:Creating the Life She Wants
Hope I named them all. That was fun!
God Bless You and Yours and Your Creative Life!!!
Sorry about that I went by the last #s in 0810 instead of
1,2,3,4. Hope you can figure it out or I can redo later.
These art cards look like lots of fun. Hope you find the perfect names for all of them.
Here we go:
1. Eyes Wide Open 2. Fleur de Rose 3. And together they flew away 4. Pink. Now. 5. The girl in the window 6. This bird rocks 7. 15, going on 5 8. Smell the colours 9. Second life 10. One blue rose 11. Magic garden 12. Hidden thoughts 13. Dance of the butterflies 14. On wings of a butterfly 15. Bambi’s new friend 16. Hands up 17. In the Scribbles or Merry little forest 18. Buddha says Hi! 19. Smell the roses 20. Do or Don’t 21. Wordy frog 22. Waiting for the rainbow 23. Idea Owl 24. Adopted Sisters
*hugs*
Sophie
no names for art, sorry, but I did want to say, I LOVE the owls! My Univerisity’s mascot is an owl :D
Missed reading your blog while I was on holiday!!!
8. 081016- Autumn love
12. 081009- Loops & Needles
13. 081028- Summer buzz
081021
the Daughter of the Madonna and a passing owl.
ok here’s my go;
3. angel love
7. owlord won’t you buy me..
21. froggy paradise
22. and the sky is blue..
24. *i am so sweet*
they are all great bye the way! love and light
The titles usually come to me as I am creating. They evolve too as the paintings do; I rarely end up with what I planned on starting with.
I have dried up for names too…boo hoo…lol but I do think 081028 should be “orange is life”. I love that picture with the little orange flowers.
081018 should be “the word tree”
081025 should be “dark flight”
and that is me finished. I have had a look at the others and they are much better than mine. Hope you find nice titles Hanna.
1) She turned white as a sheet in the midst of her an atmosphere filled with colors.
2) Chasing Wild Roses
3) Love on the Thrown of Wisdom
4) Curtsy to the tune of Now
5) Embracing the Imagination
Why does this happy post of yours make me teary-eyed? It’s so open! I think I’m a little emotional from the election here, and it’s spilling over. Life is good.
I mean: 1) She turned white as a sheet in the midst of an atmosphere filled with colors.
6) Holding Steady
7) The Beginning of Wisdom or Learning to be Wise
8) Winds of Change
9) Material of a Joyful Soul
10) Quilting Eggstaticlly
11) Flower Stitches
12) Pink Palette
13) Rippling Ribit
14) In the Shadows of a Dream
15) Fa La La La La La Fawns
16) Learning to Let Go
17) Inspiring Ideas
18) Meditating on Creative Thinking
19) Just the Right Touch
20) The Wisdom of a Healthy Lifestyle
21) A Frogs Life
22) Blue Heavens
24) I Like You, I Like You Alot or I Love You, I Love You Alot
Also important: what did you name your NaNoWriMo novel this year? I haven’t named mine yet, and the poor thing feels very sad. Back to work, but it was fun to take a break and look at your art!
Perhaps in honor of my Swedish heritage, I will name my novel “Uff da!” or “Lutefisk”. Julekaga! No, “Lutefisk”. I love lutefisk. Very cool.
Andrea in Minnesota, noveling at 3 a.m., not making much sense in English OR Swedish
81024 the better to see you with
81021 in flight
81017 the time is now
81016 autumn bliss (the words on there were perfect!)
81009 over the garden wall
81027 stop, be still
81029 in my mind’s eye
81030 underneath the layers
81011 don’t
81007 rain leads to rainbows
81003 the wisdom of knowing nothing
yep, that’s how i name art too, i listen for what pops into my head and go with it!
Vilka UUNderbara kort! Sj?lv namnger jag mina m?lningar INNAN jag m?lar dom. Antingen en hel mening som jag sett i en tidning tex. “Hon vattnade alla blommorna b?de p? baksidan och framsidan av huset.” Och sen m?lar jag utifr?n det, eller s? om det ?r ett portr?tt eller liknande s? har jag ett namn, ?ven ett p?hittat, i tanken. tex. “Nu ska jag m?la Milea och hennes undulat”.
Okay, I bet I pick cards other people have picked already, but I don’t want to read people’s comments because they might influence me! So, here are some suggestions of mine:
16. 081027 Hand of Fate
8. 081016 Place of Resting
6. 081019 Patchwork Song
12. 081009 Slices
17. 081029 Eye Fly
Isn’t it interesting, looking at someone else’s work and trying to name it? It makes you look closer and more carefully…
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Some very interesting art and a good way to name them