Years ago, as I signed one of my finished pieces, I caught myself doing what I had often done, attempting to slap my scribbled, yet perfectly artful moniker onto the piece with a flourish like I must have seen people do on television or in movies I saw growing up. Somehow it got embedded in my mind that this was the proper way to sign a piece (wth 🙄). But the signatures started to look like crap, and after a while I wasn't sure they were even my real signature anymore.
Admittedly, it's tricky for me, because I'm called by my middle name, Renée, and that's the name I sign on my work.
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| am I weird for practicing? |
But on official documents, I'm often compelled to sign my name the way it is on my birth certificate, which has a different flow than just my middle and last name. That signature looks different.
Aside from commissioned work, artists don't create things to cater to what people expect. So when I noticed myself doing this, and how for the umpteenth time, I didn't like the way my signature looked on the piece, I stopped it. I remember telling myself, "hey, I want this to be my actual signature". And if it makes me more comfortable to take my time and sign it like me, most of the time, no one even witnesses me doing it! So who am I doing this weird cliché flourish for? I just want to sign my genuine, natural way and be done with it.
And if I felt the need to make said show, as an artist, why would I want to do it like anyone else?
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