I’ve uploaded new work to my website – my new painting Between Serendipity & Happenstance.
I was talking to a friend recently about my most recent self-portrait, To Break Free (Without the Hunter), and he was asking me what the piece was about. I was somewhat reluctant to go into too much detail, as I like to leave a certain amount of that up to the viewer. The clues are often there, and as much as I have my own thoughts on what my work is about, the viewer also plays an important part in the interpretation of my work and forming his or her own narratives.
I give visual clues, bits and pieces to a story, and oftentimes, there is much inferred in the title of a painting too. I’ve always been a bit turned off by works called, Untitled, in that that is as much a title as any other. The work is actually titled, Untitled, to me at least. Which may or may not be the point (more times than not, I don’t think it is).
I give a lot of thought into the title of a piece. Sometimes it comes as an afterthought – only once I’ve finished the painting does the title come to me. And sometimes it comes to me before the painting has even been created, as soon as I can picture the painting in my head, the title pops up with the image. For Between Serendipity & Happenstance, the title was something I was working on after the painting was finished. While I was painting it, I simply referred to it as The Swing, in my thoughts. Some other titles I played with were The Pendulum of Serendipity, To Oscillate by Chance, and The Mademoiselle Oscillates, amongst a list of others not worth mentioning. Often, I get drawn to certain words and try to work them into the title, playing around with different combinations until I find the right fit. And I arrive at the appropriate title much like when I know I’ve finished a painting…it just feels right and I know when to stop.