One thing that artists like to do is to name their best drawings and paintings. In a way this helps them psychologically take ownership in their work, and it is also a sense of pride, a calling out internally to the external world; look at what I created. In the process of naming a recently created work the artist is saying to themselves, this is good, it's worthy and it ought to have a name. They are proud of what they have done, and generally speaking if they name it, and believe it to be that level of quality, it usually is. After all, the artist is always their own harshest critic.
Now then, recently, I talked to a very talented artist who had done a quite good charcoal sketch of a male sitting in a chair in a pair of running shorts with their over worked feet and legs resting on a lower cross support piece of the chair. The artist named the sketch;
"The Runner"
She told me that you can tell a lot about a person by their feet. You can learn about their health, how they take care of themselves, and even their way of life. I thought about that, and I also agreed. Interestingly enough, I am also a runner from years gone back, a quite good one actually. I looked at the painting of the runner's legs and feet and thought to myself; "I like that sketch very much, and I like the name she gave it also."
Why? Well, because, I can tell you that after running the mile run back in college, that my spikes caused so much friction that my feet felt like they were on fire. There is something funny about that because during the race you can't feel the pain, as all the muscles in your entire body burn with pain, but once you stop, you feel that intense burning in your feet.
That's why if you watch a track and field match featuring the 800M, 1500M, 3000M - the first thing the athletes do is lie on the ground and rip their shoes off. Most people don't know that or probably don't care - but it's like torturing your feet after running a half or full marathon, you just want to get those damn shoes off and sit down - seriously!
Yes, I remember all that, so her sketch grabbed my memories of the pain, exhilaration of winning, and the need to relax after the event, just sit there and let your feet slowly rid themselves of the excruciating pain. So, her name for that sketch is absolutely spot on! When a mere sketch can bring back those emotions, it's obviously good enough to name. Think on this.
