What’s in a name?
I find that choosing a suitable name for my mosaic artworks is just as important as the piece itself. It makes the story whole. The process I use for this choice often starts with a working title, first thought of at the same time as the first sketch. When the mosaic is complete (or during completion) I then begin to form the words into a kind of symphony that must be descriptive and poetic. It doesn’t have to be a long title, sometimes one word says it all. I usually jot down several titles, or store them in my head. Then I run my ideas past my partner just as he is about to go to sleep!
He loves the challenge of tearing my words apart and reforming them , so never objects. He comes up with some really bad phrases, sentences that seem to have come from a long lost hippy past . I cringe as I imagine my new piece of work on display with those words under it. “NO, no, no,” I protest, “those are awful words, my work will be ruined if it is called that!” He persists with other titles, some very silly ones and some very good contemporary ones, but they are still not really describing my work. Then as I am about to fall asleep, (it is now too late to think anymore) he gets it. It is perfect, describing the work beautifully, giving away enough to engage, whilst retaining a little ambiguity.
