Putting Your Name On It

Has it really been a week since I updated? Yikes! It sure doesn't seem like it. Over here in Tiffany's Realm, I have been climbing over mountains of furniture, construction supplies, and laundry (eesh) just to keep things running sort of normally here in the studio. A lot of the things that are normally in the studio are still hanging out in my garage, and tonight I think I'll finally bring in all the boxes of reference materials, art supplies and other gizmos and get it all back to "normal" in here.

This week I have been thinking about putting your name on your work. I always sign my paintings, and all of my prints, but I have always been hesitant to put a line of text on the print with my name, copyright info, the name of the piece and my website. I am not sure why, in hindsight. I think a lot of other artists are also hesitant to put their name on it. Thinking back, I can't even recall the number of times I've bought some artwork, got it home, and realized the artist's name was nowhere to be found. Sure they signed it, but I couldn't read their signature, so now what?

I recently started representing other artists in a wholesale venture, and I realized that I really wanted people to know who the work was by. So I started putting a little line of text at the bottom of the print. It's faint, not very large, but it says "Piece Title" Copyright © Artist's Name. Then I realized, why am I not doing this with my own work?

If it really bothers somebody, easy. Put a mat over it and you'll never see it. It's not on the artwork itself, it's on the white border along the bottom edge of the print. Now if someone looks at it five years from now and can't remember where they got it or who painted it, they can just pull it out of the frame and oh hey, there's the artist's name and everything! Problem solved, I think!

So, to summarize, be proud of your work. Sign it, put your name on it, and when you sell it, make sure that there is a legible line of text somewhere (front, back, a sticker, something) that tells them who made it. Ta da!