10 years
Titles can be a very important part of the identity and meaning of a work. The best ones can add more layers for a viewer to explore or, if the artist wishes to direct them to where they want them to go. Personally I like to leave the viewer with options as to the title and the works meaning.
As far as titles go my preferred way of working is usually to leave them till after the painting is complete. However, sometimes they can become apparent even before a work has begun. After viewing Thailand based Ernest Zacharevics’ untitled painted portrait work on found wooden boards I was encouraged to put to use a found wooden fence panel of my own.
My original intention was to paint a detailed and highly finished piece like Zacharevics’, but when thinking what the fence panel meant and what they brought to the work I decided against it. I discussed in a previous blog about fences demarcating the boundaries of land, property, the ownership of these and their purpose in keeping people out so I decide that a very simple flat portrait would be enough.
The properties of my painting surface were already giving me enough meaning, I didn’t need to go crazy with the detail like I usually do. When drawing out the face in pencil on the panel it kept occurring to me that the vertical lines of the panel were reminding me of prison bars. Again links with my subject matter were obvious, a persons situation if damaging or distressing can be a trap, a cage or a prison, and the length of time they find themselves in that situation can be a sentence handed down to them.
The title then came to me. With these other layers added I decided I should simplify the painting even further to a single tone stencil like image. The title came from a simple answer to a simple question from an interviewer:
“how long have you been living on the streets?”
“10 years.”
