On Thursdays, Alyson Stanfield poses a question for artists on her Art Biz Blog. This week, she gave me an opportunity to talk about my name confusion when she posed the question “What’s in a name?”.
Just as I have always tended to do double majors in school and just as my work lives between the Tibetan and the textile art worlds, I carry two names and vacillate between them, sometimes wondering whether I should go back to the original one or fully adopt the new one.
My art is based in Tibetan culture and tradition. I learned its techniques while living with the Tibetans in India and speaking Tibetan. In that context, I used the name given to me by a Tibetan lama. It’s a name that inspires me and that connects me with the tradition that inspires my art, and when speaking Tibetan it was completely natural for me to introduce myself with that name and to respond to it.
Then I began marketing my artwork in the west, talking about it in English-speaking environments. For a while I tried to use my Tibetan name alone: Rinchen Wongmo. But I always spontaneously introduced myself as Leslie, so that was a problem. It also made Wongmo into a surname, and that’s not how Tibetan names work. I wasn’t comfortable with it.
Finally I settled on turning my full Tibetan name into my artistic surname (hyphenating it to keep the two parts together) and keeping my original first name: I became Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo… professionally.
But, in many contexts, I still have my maiden name. (I was already too confused to even consider taking my husband’s name when I married!) So bank accounts and driver’s license and passport, travel reservations, etc. still carry Freilich. This gets confusing.
A magazine subscription may be in my original name, but if it’s connected with membership in an arts association, I may have joined with my artistic-Tibetan name. Membership in a sports club will be in my original name, while membership in the Surface Design Association will be in my artistic name. So what about membership in a Buddhist group? Since my artwork is Tibetan Buddhist art… I lose track. Occasionally, I forget what name I registered under. So far, there’s been no cost to this ambiguity other than the scattering of my own thoughts. But every now and then, I wonder if I should just go back to being Leslie Freilich and let the Tibetan-ness of my work simply speak for itself.
I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Leslie, this is fascinating! Definitely a problem I haven’t encountered elsewhere. I would ask what feels right to you. Maybe meditate on it a bit. I am sorry there is no easy answer.
Hi Alyson. Thanks for visiting my blog. Maybe there simply is no answer and doesn’t really need to be. Maybe it’s all just fine as it is. With the documentary on my work about to be released, it doesn’t seem so wise to change my professional name now… Or maybe it doesn’t matter. We’ll see. Thanks again for inspiring the thoughts.