I like long titles on artwork these days.
A title either participate’s in the overall visual story or it is decidedly generic. Generic, I have done that. I get the sense that it is more acceptable for artists who aren’t women. Maybe I am wrong about that. Maybe I am biased by all of the other things that are more acceptable for such artists.
For a while, I let nonsense live in my titles while I skirted the edges of it in my visual work, smoothing it out with clean edges and pretty colors. As our absurdist times compounded, I could no longer continue being so glossy.
The artwork and titles now, they are in it together. This is probably a good thing. My art can skew odd, and when people experience something even slightly outre, they want to know the name(s) for it. And I get to make up what to call it because all of this is made up.
Here are the iterations I went through for the title on a collage that is on its way to Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe, the collage shown above.
Actual Title: I might have been stoned when the vortex shimmered and the myth of dry clean only unravelled.
Iterations, listed in reverse order, including incomplete versions:
Either I was stoned or the vortex shimmered as the myth of dry clean only unravelled
Either I was stoned or the vortex shimmered as it all unraveled: dry clean only really is a myth.
An inescapable, gloriously dizzying vortex of blue
The fact that I was stoned threw off the vortex and
That time I got so stoned
breaking the spell of dry clean only and other such
unraveling the spell of dry clean only and other such nuisances
unraveling the myth of dry clean only and other such services
dry clean only and other such superstitions
Close the door, you’re letting in the vortex
I have superstitions about black lipstick, the vortex, and old photo albums
Superstition: I am suspicious of black lipstick ever since I got vertigo at the vortex.
Suspicious, Superstitious, Vertigo, Vortex or Just Black Lipstick
Black Lipstick Gave Me Vertigo at the Vortex and That’s How I Became Superstitious
Is it vertigo or an out-of-vortex experience?
It is Sometimes Inconvenient That This Vortex is
I’m Having an Out of Vortex Experience
The Vortex I Mean Vertigo Has Gotten Out of Hand
It is Sometimes Inconvenient to Have an Energy Vortex on the Tip of My Finger
You might have a favorite in the list that is not the title I landed on and that’s information that can stay with you if you get what I’m saying.
Who knows? This collage might end up back in my studio where I will cut it up, repurpose it, and give it a new name. Or it might end up in a new home with a nickname, the title written across its back never spoken aloud again.
