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Shakespeare is Shakespeare

It has not recently been discovered that Shakespeare's works were written by someone else. There are always theories about who wrote the works and yet another one has been put forward in the last few weeks. Shakespeare was an educated man who retired from playwriting to enjoy the latter part of his life amongst the wealth and status he had earned. It would be more interesting to look at why it is that people cannot accept that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays.

(RG note) Thanks Norma. William (Bill) Shakespeare should not be confused with William (Willie) Shakespeare who were married to the same woman at the same time and (curiously) happened to be buried in the same grave on the same day.

Unfortunate popularity

When I first began selling my artwork I was shy and decided I was more

The Time Keeper oil painting  click image to enlarge

comfortable using just my first initials with my last name. On the launch of my website I found myself to be very popular - unfortunately these were not art collectors - my initials are SM…

Suddenly I was no longer bashful about using my full name!

More on initials

I'm the only one in the world with this name, me thinks. But when I have to sign my name on a completed oil painting I wish I was Ann Hope. How appropriate are initials? My full name is: Priscilla Cameron Westesen.

(RG note) Thanks Priscilla. Appropriate for some would be Annie Hope? The question mark might disturb Google but would at least invite interaction from others. Initials are useful unless they convey unwanted information as in Ann N. O. Hope.

Genealogy

As luck would have it, and thanks to my Father, I was born with a

Vermillon Lakes Road oil painting  click image to enlarge

beautiful, unusual surname. It is my most prized possession. From the time I was an art student I have proudly signed all my artwork with just one name - Saltiel. There are so few Saltiels that to find another who is an artist is uncommon.

Fifteen years ago, on a trip to the Rockies, a stranger with the same name as me, sought me out. Coming via Vancouver he found a Saltiel there who told him to be sure to look for the artist Saltiel when he got to Banff. Both thought I was a man. That happens when you don't sign with a given name. Moshe Shaltiel's passion for researching our family genealogy has become his profession. It has resulted in ongoing international family reunions. Travelling family members, such as myself and Bill, now visit "cousins" around the globe. Moshe has written an account of our family's journey through history, tracing us to King David. My portrait of him is on the back of the dust cover. It's all truly amazing. Check The Shealtiel Family Worldwide for more details.

Journey of a name

When I was a young boy, I was not given a nickname. Having the last name Ferrie was all I seemed to need. I was teased mercilessly. I can remember asking my parents if we could change our name. Apparently the name goes back to the Spanish Armada and in Scotland the name Ferrier (which the name was originally) is the Blacksmith. To this day Ferrier School is what Blacksmiths call their teachings. About 200 years ago some idiot took the last "r" off my name and I was branded Ferrie. Now, when I was a teenager, I just did not have the self esteem I have today. I was a sensitive kid and with all the taunting and hazing I turned into myself and my sketch book.

These days having the name Ferrie rules! Everyone remembers my name. I brand all my paintings with a solid red and gold signature and spell out my name with precision. I had no problem getting my website address JohnFerrie.com. I even had a client who was marketing her new pizza (that I did the logo for) with the catch phrase "put a Ferrie in your freezer!" It is all part of a journey.

Backward goes forward

Many years ago, after returning from a gallery tour of NYC, I mentioned

Sunrise, Sunset watercolor painting  click image to enlarge

to my husband that many artists have long ethnic names. My name and the one I signed all my art with was a name shared by many. "You have another name" he said, "GREBLEZNIK, your maiden name backwards." I decided to use that name for my more abstract art. It was unique and denoted my Russian heritage. When using GREBLEZNIK I took on a different persona and worked with a special abandon. I was pleased to have my art published in art magazines with the name GREBLEZNIK and when two of those works were acquired for the Collections of Hermitage Museum, Russia, there was a special sense of accomplishment.

No other on the planet

In the past I experimented with using a different name for my art as I thought Jones was just way too common. I tried using my first and middle names, Julie Rodriguez, but then when I signed checks for entry fees and then used a different name on the registration slip, it was almost always way too confusing and I ended up being listed with a jumbled name with hyphens, misspellings and filed under both 'J' and 'R'. (And most forms don't ask for your "Art Name.") This is especially true for those who might choose to use a family name or maiden as a surname just for art purposes. I settled on my full married name which includes my maiden name as my middle name, Julie Rodriguez (no hyphen) Jones. It works. There is no other on the planet from what I can tell.

Architect of a name

For years I used my first and last name leaving out my middle name which

Marsh Marigolds acrylic painting  click image to enlarge

was my mother's first name. I then decided, after meeting another artist with my name, and after the bank cashed a cheque on my account, which belonged to another Barbara Mercer, that I must use my full name: Barbara Elizabeth Mercer. It has given me strength. It is my personal molding ground, to build whatever I wish to build. I am the architect.

Proud of namesake

A number of years ago I was leafing through a photography magazine and

Highland Loch watercolor painting  click image to enlarge

was struck by some very beautiful travel photos from India. The compositions were superb. I was so taken by the photos I thumbed to the front of the magazine to find out who had taken them. To my amazement the photographer was Carl Purcell. I couldn't remember even having been to India. I was glad to see that someone with my name was doing such great work. It has never bothered me. I would like to meet him some day.

Changing names

There are paintings from my youth when I signed with my maiden name,

White Tulips oil painting  click image to enlarge

then my married name, then my maiden name again, and finally now with my current married name. It confuses me and I'm sure it would confuse any collectors. I finally decided to stick with my married name of Zapata. But then one day a "Marketing Expert" was at my studio assessing my work. He said that I needed to get rid of the Zapata. He told me that it conjured up visions of the old bullfighter paintings on black velvet. He also said that I needed to switch to a male name.

In the end I couldn't do it. I love my last name and I'm proud of it. This is who I am. As for changing my gender, that would only be giving in to any lingering prejudice geared against female artists. Women artists will only be fully accepted and appreciated as artists as long as we are willing to step up and show our work as ourselves.

Becoming a name

The Japanese - I mean the Hokusai Japanese – seem to have changed

Joelle original painting  click image to enlarge

names at every important change in their artistic careers. Hokusai himself has numerous names, the last one being the translation of "the old man crazy about drawing" if I'm not mistaken.

My elder son, a filmmaker, has the same name as myself (and he doesn't like his middle name). So he is using my "civil" name, Dan Iordache, and myself I found a new one, Ion Vincent Danu, the name I sign my paintings and drawings. It has for me a very deep emotional charge: Ion is my middle name (also the name of my father and the middle name of my second son, a simple but very ancient and good "sounding" first name), Vincent is my due to Vincent Van Gogh, my "mentor" and Danu is a nick name, a diminutive for Dan, given to me by my mother, wife and mother-in-law. In Romanian, my native language, it means: Yes-No (like the Yin-Yang of the Chinese symbol, a unity of the contraries). I feel myself becoming each day more and more Ion Vincent Danu and less and less my civil name.

Distinguishing element

Much to my surprise when I got into a gallery in Sante Fe, I found

A Girl's Gotta Be a Girl oil painting  click image to enlarge

through Google there was another namesake already showing there. She is more of an abstract painter but needless to say, I wanted my own identity as an artist. Figuring she was there before me, I made a slight adjustment to my name and have used it every since.

Amusingly, I used to always be frustrated that my parents named me Ellen Melinda Morrison but called me by my second name. Growing up, I would go through the drudgery of every school year convincing my teachers that I went by my second name instead of my first. What was a headache has become a gift. I now sign every painting E. Melinda and go by E Melinda Morrison as my professional name. I have become proud of my parents for giving me a distinguishing element I can use to identify myself as an artist.

Reduced to three letter name

I have often thought my name was not an artist sounding name. You can

Twin Sisters oil painting  click image to enlarge

imagine how it has been butchered by most who try to pronounce it. During my school years I had many nick names, like soda cracker or soda pop to mention only two. I hated my name as a kid. Sodenkamp is Amsterdam Dutch. Now at age 56 I am proud of the name. A few months ago via the Internet I was united to family I new not living in Holland. They found me from my website.

Having a unique way to sign your work is very important. This of course will distinguish you from another with the same name so far as someone who knows your work or collects your work. But then again maybe not. Obviously the problem is the Internet and being associated or confused with same names. I agree that adding a third aspect like a middle name would be my choice. Or at least add an initial. Fredrick Remington also used a bug on his paintings – it was a buffalo skull. My grandfather was a painter also. He passed away when I was nine. I have 12 of his original paintings. My prize possessions. I was named after him, Leonard Francis Sodenkamp. On a 9"x 12" you could not get it all on. No joke! He signed his work L.F. Sodenkamp. I sign mine Len (only). I used to put the letter 'S' behind it. I dropped the 'S' years ago. Now I need to go out and see what comes up when I enter Len. Thanks for the brain food.

Internet fallacies

"A name is an entity on which a career hangs"--I can certainly sympathize with "Anonymous"! There is a larger problem here.

After making the wrenching decisions involved in literally calling a halt to my flourishing career as an architect and interior designer to pursue my great love - kiln cast art glass - and devoting my life to your theory of "Get good, Get unique, Get noticed"--I find that some crazy consumer advocate has used my name in a totally inaccurate and debasing article that comes up every time someone "googles" me. How humiliating! How immoral and unfair!

Here we have what should be the greatest invention of the century, the Internet, giving us worldwide distribution for our art, for our names, for our sales, and yet we can actually maintain no control whatsoever as to what fallacies may be attributed to us. To our own names. Google will not make any corrections, even with legal intervention. I know. I too have spent years on this. One can appeal only to the nutcase involved in publishing the web site. Readers can all imagine that success rate!

So, for years I used only my insufficient 'Art Name', "Treza", and I can assure Anonymous that, even that way, nothing can be done to correct the situation. It is rather hard to "tough it out" and hope the day will come when it will all be buried under your artistic acclaim, if no one will even answer your calls after they've "googled" such nonsense with your identity!

No cause to worry

Thanks for the latest amusing twist in the 'Find the Real Shakespeare' gag.

Breton Church oil painting  click image to enlarge

They turn up from time to time from so-called verifiable sources and eventually die the death like all before.

Your comments on identical names and confusion reigning is valid. Where you draw the line at the end of the day is hard to gauge. Once it gets to the silly stage of a string of half a dozen names, folk will probably start including numbers or other symbols. At the end of the day, if someone likes your work on the Internet, he has an instant contact address. If he buys through a gallery then he may meet you personally or certainly get the relevant details from the gallery. I really do not think we have too much cause to worry. If someone likes your work enough to want it they will beat a path to your door one way or another. How many Robert Genns are there that look like you, paint as well as you in your style and write informatively, constructively and entertainingly as you?