Titles

[Don Dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Clive;

I hope you don't mind if I start the New Year off with what I hope will
be a good round of discussion about titles in general.  Your query is
something that we all have had to deal with and I'd be interested in
hearing what other folk's solutions are to that same problem.  Anyway,
here is my two cent's worth on the subject:

I always feel that the title is important to give the viewer just a hint
of what I was/am feeling about the piece I've done.  In the end the
viewer will be reacting to the piece itself rather than the title, but I
consider the title a suggestion of a way for the viewer to understand
what the work is about.  I often find my 'perfect' title to be very
elusive and the finding a difficult task, because I have to analyze
myself a bit to find it.  I know several artists who feel that
self-analysis is dangerous, and they have warned me it might kill the
goose that lays the golden egg!

I guess I'm just too stubborn to give in to that -- so usually about a
page or two of scribbling all the words that come to mind on a nice
large-size pad of paper gives me a better idea of what I'm trying to
convey with the title.  But sometimes even then I'm not happy, and try to
get some help from my unconscious.  I specifically tell myself when I am
going to sleep that when I wake I'll know what it the title will be.
(This second method doesn't work for me unless I've tried the writing
method first, so it isn't the shortcut it sounds like!)

An example of the pad-of-paper method:  You said the work is based half
on your own step-daughter and half on Aphrodite/Venus, and that you won't
use Venus/Aphrodite in a title because those names carry far too many
preconceptions.  But you already told us about  Aphrodite/Venus and in
those few words you also conveyed what you wanted us to think.  Perhaps
those names or references ARE necessary, but with modifiers that keep the
idea more modest than the concept of goddess.  "Half Goddess" sounds a
bit odd and would get scratched-off right away, as would  "Not A Goddess,
But . . . "
Perhaps  "A  Smile for Venus" or maybe something along the lines of
"Promise of  Aphrodite"  or  "Aphrodite's Promise?"

I am sure you get the idea of where I am going, and I know you are not
going to use any of these first scribblings at the top of the page.
However, I just wanted to illustrate a way that works for me.  By the
time I get to the end of the page I have tried all the combinations of
words and I KNOW which ones are so trite and awful that this knowledge
helps me focus on what I do want.

On the other hand, I don't always labor over the title -- sometimes I
find a phrase in literature or popular culture that the sculpture just
cries out for, or then again I might ask a friend what he or she thinks
my piece looks like and they blurt out a word that is just what I was
looking for.
Hmmm, that last method sounds familiar .  .  .

A Happy New Year and Good Carving to All -

Don Dougan
http://www.dondougan.com