Wordsmithing Art Titles | Collage week 22

I love wordsmithing, which is playing with words. I love wordsmithing because it feels like a mind game to me. I often do it when I come up with titles for my artwork, be it paintings, assemblage or the current long series of collage artworks. I love playing with the words that come into my brain as I look at the different elements in each collage. I ask myself: What can you see and read plainly, what is the underlying story, what kind of word play can I create today. I add in things I know about the images and where it’s sourced from at times, and in words reveal what’s hidden underneath the surface of the images, things that might be known only to the artist.

So today, in addition to the seven newly created collages, I’m adding in my (maybe weird) thought process behind each of these titles, because I thought they were quite punny this week. :-) I hope you like my wordsmithing art titles, with or without the added explanations. I think any artwork should be able to stand on its own, but I also love context and thought-provoking titles – text and additional information from the artist – so why not save some of my own behind-the-scene-thoughts too (before I forget).

If you want to play a game, look at the collage and read my title below it. See if you can “figure it out”. For some it’s possible you could, for some you’ll need to know both English and Swedish because even though my titles are in English I often let my two languages play together in my head… :)

This blog post contains seven freshly made collage artworks from this year (number 148 to 154), as I continue creating in my series “365 collages in 2025”. I hope you find them pleasing to your eye and joyful to explore.

The first one is titled “In the headlight” from the English idiom “Like a deer in the headlight”, which means that you’re frozen in the spot out of fear or paralyzing stillness. But also, I free-associated headlight to bling, or being famous, and thought it was a great title for a collage with the late Queen Elizabeth in her crown (headlight-bling). Hmmm.

Languages visible in this collage: five. But the title “On the mend” comes from me being punny in Swedish-English. The label with the cat, says “Stoppgarn” in Swedish. “Att stoppa” means to mend, so the yarn that was on this paper card was meant for mending socks. Get it?

It’s not clear to me either, LOL. It’s just a title. Is the cat sick, or the world? Or is it the artist’s soul that’s on the mend, one collage at a time? One thing is for certain, much is broken and needs our tender lovin’ care right now. Let’s get to it.

If it can’t be fixed by hand-sewing, let’s grab a glue stick and mend it together with force.

This one is quite obvious to me, but when I googled “frogalicious”, which was the word that came up in my head as I looked at the frog illustration, it turns out it means something! Or maybe not…

The Urban dictionary, which is a fun online dictionary where you can add in your own interpretations for new or made-up words that becomes more common over time, had several definitions for frogalicious actually, but the word I got into my head after reading that it could mean “Something that is objectively ugly but also kind of attractive and you can’t quite figure out why” was lessons. So this collage is about lessons in beauty for frogs that are not always considered the most attractive animal. LOL. As someone who thinks most frogs are super cute, I love that. Also FYI, there is no thing or person that is “objectivity ugly”. Period.

The background text comes from a thrifted English book called The Woodlanders. I did not read it but I love the sound of that title, the word “Woodlander” – so I knew I wanted to use it and include it in the title. But to not directly take the book title for this art piece I also incorporated the image of the insects, which I found glued to an older letter that I also thrifted (many years ago). I’m so happy that these Mosquitos (myggor) have found their home now, even though I’m calling them the cause of “the great woodland escape” which they can be in the north of Sweden, especially in Summer. They are not too many or too bad here where I live, but in the forest they can feel like they’re out to kill you, sucking drops of your blood out when they get to you. Not dangerous or infected with a deadly fever here, but still annoying and a reason to escape the forest back to the safety of a cabin or tent.

Then, I used a few more illustrations from a German booklet I found at the “Little Free Library” book shelf.

Beautiful summer field and blue sky, and then that house that feels kind of omnious in a way (to me). Abandoned, moss stained and sun worn, this house / shack is not a nice place anymore. Maybe then it is a friendship prison? Freundschaft is German for friendship.

“A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period”, a definition borrowed from Wikipedia.

This next one is not as punny, it’s just a translation from one of dad’s garden books that I’ve cut up to use as collage fodder.

In Swedish this garden term is fransk frukthäck, which I simply direct translated to French Fruit Hedge. But in case you’re curious like me, you might wonder what it means or what it is? It is not a plant, but instead it is a way of growing fruit trees in patterns and making sure a tree grows in the way of the gardner’s will! In English it looks like you use the French term for this (which I might have titled this collage if I had looked it up before I translated it from Swedish) and it’s espaliér. It looks like a time-consuming hobby to me, but I’d love to see trees formed like that some day.

Lastly, I think you can guess where the title of this one came from quite easily:

Big alphabet letters are very literal and easy to interpret, right? Berry is a pun on very because of the berry illustration used above the alphabet. I think they’re black current, right? It is not even a very literal interpretation, so maybe I should’ve added “not a” too… LOL.

That concludes the clues and secret language hints of just one of my weekly collage sessions. Not all collage titles this year are meant to be punny of course, some are meant to be serious or poetic or even literal. Sometimes a title come to me in a line from a song I’m listening to when I am naming my collage. Sometimes I google the image and use the a heading or text snippet of the first suggestion from Google, which might be something totally unrelated but that “fits” in my mind. So don’t worry if you can’t “figure it out”, it’s not meant to trick anyone or make you question your or my sanity. It’s just a bit of fun, some wordsmithing from a poet collage artist.

Cheers my friend. Thanks for reading/looking/being here.

Thank you so much for clicking over, taking a look and leaving me a comment below this blog post telling me which of these collages you like best – and why you like it. Let me know if you enjoyed the word hints and if you “got the fun” or need any further explanation.

Please also feel free to check out week 22 2013 (Black & White Edition) and week 22 2018 (Swedish Headers).

About this project: I am making one collage for each day of the year in 2025 and blogging seven at a time each week here. I have created 365 artworks in a year thrice before so I am hopeful that I can do it again. I’d love to know which of these you like best – and why you like it. Thanks for helping me finish this by cheering me on. I appreciate you being here.
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365 collages in 2025 | previously w. 21 | this is w. 22 | next up w. 23

All art created by hand by iHanna. Copyright Hanna Andersson. All rights reserved. AI FUCK OF