| Dear Reader, Is it a world-famous painter? Or do you feel you don't need to know an artist's name to enjoy their art?  Why I keep a list of visual artists I like I believe you should keep track of the visual artists whose work you enjoy. That is, keeping an actual list with their names. And by this I DON'T mean knowing the names of the many famous artists who shaped art history. Being able to recognize their work, being able to say "Is this a Monet?" and being right about it is NOT what I'm talking about here. What I mean is knowing what kind of art YOU like — and knowing the names of artists who create that art. Visual arts exist in a vast field that includes painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, fine art photography as well as sculpture, just to name a few examples in an entirely non-exhaustive list. In this vast field, knowing the names of your favourite artists is a bit like finding an unexpectedly beautiful spot in a landscape and marking it on a map to make sure you can find your way back there again. Keeping such a list has immense value as a way to help you discover your taste. There are already a lot of lists being made out there in the world of arts & letters. "Best of" lists. Bestseller lists. Lists of award winnners & nominees. Lists of famous artworks to see before you die. List of most expensive paintings. That's fine, but none of these are a substitute for knowing what YOU enjoy. So, if this is not something you already do, I am suggesting that you start making your own list of artists whose work you admire. As someone who is very much into listmaking, I started such a list a few years ago. Through it I noticed what kind of visual art I enjoy: pop art, geometric patterns & shapes, art with bold and vibrant colours, and motifs evoking the romantic flair of centuries past. My artist list currently contains 36 names, few of them very famous. Most of them are still alive and not widely known to a broad audience. The list of names allows me to go back to them again and again: to check out new art they created or to see if they happen to have anything affordable for sale. Sometimes, I see them participating in an event and it always makes me happy to recognize a familiar name. And when I do see art at a gallery or museum, the artworks I'm drawn to have things in common with ones I do already enjoy. Book sculptures with fictitious titles Morris Wazney is an artist on my list. This Ontario artist creates sculptures and installations using metal and other materials. The images you see in this issue of Musings by YW are of her series of art objects called 'Untitled'. 'Untitled' are a kind of book sculpture: used books covered in white book jackets, with hilarious fictitious book titles printed onto their spine. I was instantly intrigued when I first saw these sculptures and knew I had to stock them in the Young W shop. I haven't actually checked out what kind of used books are covered by each of the 'Untitled' book jackets. That is because I prefer the actual book itself to remain a mystery. The mystery book adds to the allure of carefully crafted book jacket. Here is a quote from Wazney's description about 'Untitled': "[I] began writing fictitious book titles as a playful way of responding to the arduous task of reading academic text. It began with “Minimalism at Length” and over the past three years the titles have taken on themes of: personal experience, shared nostalgia and nonsensical narratives.” The book sculptures are reminiscent of another style of art I tend to enjoy: playful sculptures that convey a deeper message and incorporate a touch folliness. It's true that you can take in an artwork simply by looking at it, without knowing the artwork's title, the name of the artist, the year and style it was created in or the technique that was used. However, I would argue that knowing at least the name of the artist provides valuable context. I'm not saying to walk through a museum looking at every label next to every painting to find out the name of its creator. It's nice to just take in the art free of this pressue to analyze it. But for artworks you truly treasure, it's a good idea to seek out the name of the person who created it. Knowing their name helps you discover other similar artists. Who were they inspired by? Who did they inspire? By seeing these connections, starting from a single artist's name can yield many more and soon you'll have developed your own unique taste. Plus, you also get more out of an artwork if you know more about the artist's body of work, not just a single artwork. Knowing their name allows you to explore their body of work and learn more about their life.  | 
