"Wings of My Soul"

"Wings of My Soul"

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Titles

Hermon is amazing; not only is his talent shown in his paintings, but in his titles for each piece. Many times, the title precedes the actual painting. Then the painting reveals itself. As I said before, there is great preparation for the artwork; the titles are another story. At one time, we had about 48 lithograph images, and, of course, that many names. We laughed about it, because many of them had wind, wolves, or brothers in the titles. There was North Wind, South Wind, East Wind, West Wind, Ruler of the Winds, To Catch the Wind, Brothers, Three Wolves, Snow Wolf, Snow Wolves, etc. Sometimes our family and staff would concentrate on thinking up a title for a painting that Hermon just could not name. Those were some of the most enjoyable times we spent together. Spelling was never Hermon's best asset. So, there were errors that needed to be corrected before the images went to the printer. One in particular, that I caught, was "Coming Home." He spelled it with two "m's"-comming home. So it was not surprising, when we got one back from the printer with a mispelled title. But this one was particularly funny to us, because it was not one that Hermon had ever misspelled. (We thought the type setter should have caught that one, but maybe he was Japanese.) "Broken Silence" read "Broken Slience!" So there it is and there it stays. One of the most beautiful titles was made by Jim, our older son. "Wings of My Soul" suited the mood of the painting to a tee. Titles are very important to the artwork, because it can tell the tale in very few words. Hermon has always had a great knack for that.