Artist Names

 As an artists I often wonder how my next project will come about. Where my paintbrush will lead me. How these actions will effect greater, newer and more interesting paths to take in the never ending road my imagination leads. I recently finished a bunch of earrings in February and commenced to letting then sit and cure for two weeks before deciding on what to call the collection. Most of my paintings do not have names. They are part of the whole collection of a family painting tree and I usually just refer to them as the year they were painted or the time frame I painted them in. "Oh this one I did when I was doing Seeds & Stones, Oh thats from 2017." just like my writing and talking my painting is a tangent. I usually spend 2-4 weeks in one tangent and paint as much as I can there. Sometimes it's a color I use or a shape or an overall idea. All tangents come to an end though and I move on to something else. Most of the time my tangent paintings lead me to a new idea or the last one in the collection has something I like and need to explore. My tangents usually always have names while the paintings themselves are part of the tangents so they have no names. Most recently I've been painting a tangent called Bubbles which was short lived and only produced small paintings and only around seven of them. However Bubbles was a good exploration in color and overlapping ideas. It gave me a chance to explore and renew my love with the color orange. Back to tangents however, the thought of tangents lead me to calling my collection of new earrings mentioned earlier, Shiznits.

If you don't know what a shiznit is or have never heard the word let me enlighten you. The Shiznit is a song by Snoop Dogg, however its slang meaning is basically the best of the best. Shiznits sounds like something more though, rather than it may mean one of a kind in my mind it takes on a meaning far more reaching than solely special. Shiznits sounds plural probably because of the added "s" I have added. It also sounds tragically lost. And then found again so to speak. Like a chest hidden away ion the back of the attic filled with memories. An old high school yearbook, toys, vintage jeans. They all have meaning and maybe will be used again in someway.  It's not always the look of something, it can certainly be the feel or the memory attached to it that gives an object beauty. Shiznits reminds me of all the objects in my life that have gotten lost and then have been found again. Objects with no real attached meaning, like pennies or stuffed animals. Shiznits reminds us of the frivolity we seek everyday in the mundane and the lost tasks and objects we rely on. Tied shoelaces, cups of coffee and most certainly clocks. If my meaning seems unusual, I would implore you to listen to Snoop Dogg who by any other name might also sounds like a Shiznit. or I implore you to look at the mundane in your life and see the beauty a single or many objects can do. Maybe you'll find you have more Shiznits than you thought.