Streetlights (Commission for my patroness, Heidi) 2012
I don't sign the front of my paintings. This choice started in college based on my own professor's view that artwork should be about the work and having a signature scrawled across the front can be distracting. I remember that a few of my finished pieces in high school had a signature at the bottom. I remember finishing a drawing and having this apprehension of messing up months of work by placing my name at the bottom. What if I messed up? What if I spelled my name wrong? What if if if?
Later on, I did a show in which one of the kind ladies working there asked me why I didn't sign my paintings. I just simply said that I didn't. I think she thought I was shy or being humble about my work, because she said she didn't buy a painting unless it was signed by the artist and that I should sign all my paintings.
Well, just to set the record straight, I'm not shy about my paintings. Sure, humility is a virtue I admire and wish for myself in all things, but choosing not to sign my paintings isn't a decision I make out of humility, but because of my views about art.
So, I don't sign the front of my paintings, I sign the back. A lot of artists have conflicting views about it. Some sign, some don't. I choose not to, because I do agree with my professor. The painting should be about the painting and not about me. A painting is by and large an extension of me - it's a creation by me. In that way, it's all about me! But at the same time, you (the viewer) should be able to look and enjoy a painting without me getting in the way.
However, jerks on the internet like to take what's not their's, so the internet gets a signature. Now, everyone's happy.
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