Titles Are Weird Things

New Work

 

Titles are weird things.  I make new work all the time.  Sometimes I know, right from the beginning, what the title of the work will be.  But, more often than not, the finished piece takes time to reveal itself. Sometimes the piece is with holding and it takes help to find the title.  That was the case with this piece.

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I knew that the piece was talking about weather changes, ocean currents, magnetic poles…all kinds of climate change things!  The oceans are key to our survival even as they rise and consume our shorelines and, in concert with rising temperatures, create huge, destructive storms.  My imagery was based on weather maps, navigation maps, longitude lines coming together at the poles, movement that seemed to whirl on the edge of chaos.

I started brainstorming:

  • Mapping Currents
  • Heat Maps
  • Mapping Time
  • Change Map

None of those were right.  When Sarah came to work, we brainstormed together:

  • Change Sutra
  • Climate Sutra
  • Topographical Sutra

We talked about the function of a title in my  abstract art.  I use titles to give clues to my thinking, to open up questions in the viewer so they can ask their own “I wonder…” questions. Their answers may be entirely different from mine and that’s OK.  When the viewer engages enough to wonder, the artwork begins to do its magic. The viewer develops a story from the experience. It remains with them.  Whether they buy the work or not, they own the story and the experience it evoked.  That is mighty powerful magic!

So we continued discussing what we actually saw in the work and our responses:

  • Chaos
  • Chaotic
  • Towards a Chaotic Future
  • Tension and resistance
  • Mapping the North/The South
  • The spoils of Consumption
  • Whirlpool
  • Vortex

We just about gave up for the day. And then, the title arrived, seemly out of nowhere:

I Can’t Help but Think About all the Sea Plastic…Digital embroidery, polyester thread on polyester felt, foundry mold, plywood, Flasche paint, Styrofoam.
25 x 16 x 4  $2500

In the whirling vortex of climate worry, I can’t help but think about all of the sea plastic!