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What’s in a Name?
Dotty Seiter
“What are you going to name it?” Ann said.
“Oh.” I paused. “I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about that.”
I looked at my painting. A title bubbled up, and I started laughing so hard I couldn’t speak. Every time I tried to tell Ann and Sylvia my thought, a fresh wave of hysteria swept over me in paroxysms—I hadn’t had that cathartic a laugh in a good while!
I’d never named a painting before. In fact, I’d never painted a painting before. I was coming to the end of a total immersion weekend with painter/teacher Ann and long-time close friend Sylvia.
As it turns out, I took the title idea that suffused me with hilarity—Tree at the Edge of the World—and discovered its deeper truth. My revised title became Leaning into Lessons at the Edge of the World.
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| Leaning into Lessons at the Edge of the World 11x14"; acrylic on canvas board landscape 2014 |
The title captures elements reflected visually on my canvas—a tree listing to one side, true to the one outdoors that inspired me, and the seeming absence of much in the way of background, which is what sparked my gasping for air and sent tears of hilarity streaming down my face.
What the title identifies further, however, is the internal essence of my adventure. Over the course of an all-in weekend of painting, I had put myself at an edge of my experiential world; I’d picked up a paintbrush for the first time and let myself lean into mixing colors and putting acrylics on canvas to see what I might learn—about painting and about myself.
I liked the lessons!
