April 16, 2007

Title Mix-Ups

Odyssey and Realm, both 48x36, 2005

Strange things happen... within the past couple of weeks a number of paintings have returned home to be redistributed to other galleries. I tend to this rotation at least once a year, cleaning up inventory, taking paintings I feel have been there long enough or those the directors suggest are not receiving raves.

In this case, two works that were completed at the same time in '05 are now home. Same size, different looks entirely... and their titles are switched! (My bad!) Realm and Odyssey carry completely different connotations as titles go, and here they are, erroneously labeled! They were at different galleries so my database is totally screwed as far as their gallery "provenance" is concerned. I've already started repainting Realm by moving some of the color blocks around, it always seemed an awkward composition anyway (must have been in a hurry to finish and deliver at the time.) It will be retitled so as to clear up the confusion once and for all. Odyssey will move on as it is... surprised it's still in the mix. I like it better than some others that have recently sold... but what do I know?

Along the same lines... and to show that this is not an isolated fault... while checking inventory in NOLA, I discovered that a large painting that had been sold and paid for last year, was actually a different painting... the director had given me the wrong title of the sold painting. So what I thought was sold was still there and missing was the sold one.

It does get confusing. Maybe we should go to bar codes on our paintings? Nah... I rather like the personal touch, mistakes and all.

2 comments:

CMC said...

yeah...I have an issue right now with my gallery near NOLA. I came home with all my paintings recently but they wanted to keep a couple of them...SO my records were updated until I noted they had one of the ones I thought I brought back on their site...AND I can't find it here in the studio. Gotta find out about that one.

Martha Marshall said...

How about stenciling big graphic versions of bar codes right into the painting! On second thought, that wouldn't work for me. I paint over them too many times.

Which brings me to the other issue. I must remember to never title paintings on the backs, and for the same reason!