February 1, 2017 marked the beginning of a year long painting / internet art project titled #unmade.

For #unmade, I am posting, via Twitter, titles for 100 unrealised paintings over the course of 2017. A painting (most likely as an acrylic and ink on canvas) is available for each title. Each #unmade painting is priced at $100. To commission a painting, a person may contact me (DM via Twitter) the day the title is posted. If no one commissions the title on the the day of the post, the painting will remain unmade.

The second set of 10 tiles (#11-20) have generated 0 commissioned paintings with 9 likes and 0 retweets. During the second set, (03-15-2017 to 04-09-2017), the mriver twitter account gained 2 new followers and lost 1. This brings the account total to 290 followers. Of the 9 new likes for titles #11-20, 88.9% are from MTAA member emeritus @twhid.

To help compare the two title sets, twitter tells me title #5. I Can See No Greater Beauty, In All the American Landscape, Than Winter Fields and Streets Full Shoulder 2 Shoulder in Resistance #unmade received 192 impressions and 2 engagements and title #15. If The Trees #unmade, received 94 impressions and 1 engagement.

+++

After the first set of Unmade posts, I decided to write a brief report every 10 tiles. Each report looks at the Unmade data (or lack thereof) as well as documents some of the project’s ideas and processes (or lack thereof). Now that we are done with the data section, let’s turn our thoughts to names.

Although I think of Unmade as a performance with painting, it is also of project of naming. It is naming without the object to be named. Unmade is built with the understanding a painting may or may not appear. “TBD” as I like to say about most things these days.

Let’s talk about names. William tells us a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Gertrude adds Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. In general, I have to go with Gertrude on this one. Although, with the nature of Unmade, a name might be best expressed as “Rose?”. This name might be best vocalized as Stanley calling Stella.

Along with titles for possible paintings, the overall project needed a name as well. Unmade, or #unmade in Twitter lingo, was the choice. As the common usage for unmade refers to the state of a bed, it seemed right for the project. I felt the image of crumpled sheets and dented pillows worked well with my thoughts on painting, labor, language and the internet.

For the first set of 10 post in the project, I wrote long and unwieldy names. The second set was short three word titles. For the next set of ten names over the upcoming 5 weeks, I will use the proven Warhol method of appropriated news headlines. The first title (#21) will be from New York. The rest will be from newspapers across the globe with online translation help via Google. With the ugly state of the world these days, I fear the next set of painting titles might trigger a significant drop in likes and followers. Then again, I might get lucky and hit impeachment week. TBD. permanent link to this post