Titles are like poetry. They start a story. The story is completed by the experience of the painting. ["Golden Shower Tree. A time of renewal."] I watch the play of colors, textures and forms. Minutes and hours pass. I start to understand what I am seeing in the painting, a little bit. I am suspended in time. Time starts again and I live out the story in front of the painting. The movement begun in a flow of paint is completed. The meaning is realized. My story intersects with the painting for a moment in time. ["Precious Eggs. Seeds of Abundance."]
The titles of my artworks are an important step in the my artistic process. After many layers of paint, there is a moment when I know the painting is complete. I frame, I photograph, and then I discover a title. ["Leaping Purple Dancer. Lost then Found"]
The title comes after time is spent with the painting. I sit and look at the painting and sometimes I talk with it. I listen to a quiet voice that whispers and I use my musical imagination to see where the painting is leading me. ["Alive. We Dance. Choosing Partners"] This part of the process is very meditative. Images form into shapes, and shapes form into meaning. ["Secret Map of the Heart. Courage and Strength"] How do I see the painting? How does the painting feel? How do I feel while sitting in front of the painting. Are there hints of the representational world in the swirling colors? Does the movement lead me somewhere. Do the emotions exist in their own time and space? Does the painting have something to say for itself? ["Meteor Shower. Heart of the World"]
Colors also have meaning for me in an energetic sense. This also impacts my discovery of a title. I am drawn to specific colors at certain times that have a specific emotional and energetic impact. Yellows, blues, greens, purples... ["Blue Cat Hunting. The search for meaning in small spaces."] I don't paint with black. Browns are formed by the additive coloring of watercolor layers. Titles often have the component colors in them, which have meanings into themselves. ["Yellow Guitar, paints red music."]