Art Business: Name Change, Game Change - Update

The butterfly "chop" of The Artist Formerly Known as Whistler

I've had so much feedback on my question about changing my professional name that I felt I needed to write a followup post.  I don't have time to reply to each one.  But believe me, I do appreciate your response!

About half the comments were in favor of the change with the remainder dissenting.  Opinions were strong, whatever the stance.   Those in favor were mostly in alignment with my reasons for changing; for the others, the top issue was that I might confuse collectors and followers and hurt my continuing success as an artist.  Many came from women who have dealt with a name change because of marriage or divorce.

Several also gave suggestions.  Here are a few:

"Is this an April Fool's joke?"  Uh, no.  I posted the original blog post on April 3.

"I do think your existing name is very nice, though.  How about M. Chelsey Johnson?"  In this case, the reader misspelled my middle name—exactly what I am trying to avoid.  I'll add that this wasn't the only commentor who misspelled it.  Point proven.

"Have you thought about using a chop?" A chop is a seal that is used to stamp a painting, often used in place of a signature.  You'll see it on Asian artwork as pictographs or logograms.  Whistler used a butterfly.  But just putting my chop on a painting won't work.  A glyph can't be used in marketing when everyone else is using the Roman alphabet to create a pronounceable name.  The musical artist Prince found that changing his stage name to a symbol didn't work very well; so now we call him The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

"The three-name-thing worked for John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase."  Yes, but today we have Twitter and the necessity of fitting one's name into a space the length of which is dictated by a software programmer raised in the era of MTV and ADD.  My Twitter handle is @mchesleyjohnson.  I'd prefer my whole brand, @michaelchesleyjohnson—but sorry, says Twitter, that's too long.

There are other many excellent comments, which you can find at the end of my previous post or on my Facebook studio page:  http://www.facebook.com/mchesleyjohnsonstudio.

I do like my name.  It's a family name and has a great deal of personal meaning for me.  But as I wrote in my previous blog post, it has caused a number of problems professionally.  I do agree that it is hard to build a brand from scratch.  But I have a plan!

Art Business: Change Your Name, Change Your Game?

West Fork Reflections, 9x12 oil
Should I sign it as "Michael Chesley Johnson" or "Mac Braxton"?

I plan to change my name for plein air painting events, starting in 2016.  After reading the below, please feel free to share your opinion.  Is it a good idea, or isn't it?  Why or why not?

There are 30,192 men with the name "Michael Johnson" in the United States.  (My wife's name, on the other hand, is shared by only 18 women.)  Such a common name as mine has caused a number of problems over the years.  Back when I was writing fiction, my byline was sometimes erroneously given as "Michael Jordan" or "Michael Jackson."  As a painter, I found that sometimes people did get the name right, but got the wrong Michael Johnson.

One day, the BBC called me up asking if I would give permission to use one of my paintings in a film they were shooting over in the UK.  When they described it to me—a western with horses and cowboys, subjects which I've never painted—I sadly realized it wasn't mine.  But it had my name signed to it:  "Michael Johnson."  Over the years, galleries, collectors and yard sale browsers have asked me to value other cowboy art painted by that Michael Johnson, thinking the work was mine.  (I assume it's the same person, anyway; but who really knows, with the name being so common?) I finally found out a little about him in old newspaper article on an old website, but I couldn't find out much more.

My wife suggested that I make my name less common by using my middle name.  So, I became "Michael Chesley Johnson".  Even so, the middle name has been misspelled as "Chelsey," among other variants.  Another problem is that the name is long—21 letters, not including spaces.  This causes problems for plein air painting event organizers. Often, because my name is the longest of all the invited artists, they want to shorten it for advertising.  I've seen "Michael C. Johnson" and "M.C. Johnson."  They seem to have a hard time understanding that "Michael Chesley Johnson" is my brand.  Also, Twitter and other social media platforms don't allow such lengths for user names.

I'm beginning to think that many of these problems could be solved with a shorter, less common name.  Digging into my family tree, I've come up with one that fits the bill.

Meet Mac Braxton.  I've already started signing studio paintings with this name.  Starting in 2016, anywhere I appear as an artist, such as at plein air painting events, I'm planning to be Mac.  (I'm delaying on this because some festivals have already started advertising with my old name.)  I think the name is snappier, easy to remember, and according to my research, there aren't any other Mac Braxtons in the U.S.

Of course, there is work ahead of me to replace the old Michael Chesley Johnson.  You can imagine the issues:  websites and advertising need changing, plein air festival organizers need to be told, professional organizations need to be notified, signature memberships changed, and so on.  But, in the long run, I think it'll be worth it.  And I'll probably wish I'd done it 20 years ago.

But before I go down this path, I'm curious to know your thoughts.  Will changing my name change my game?