Artists sign their artwork on the back.  Some make big swoopy cursive type signatures.  Some make nice tidy symbol looking signatures.  Most all of them seem to strive to make their signatures consistent.  I do not.  Mostly I sign with my initials, but sometimes I sign “Melissa”.  There is no rhyme or reason to which way as far as I know.  I will explain the Melissa option in a moment, but I want to add that I feel like I may one day sign things with Missy, too.  I am not planning that exactly, but the Melissa thing was not planned either.

Most of the time, I sign my work with my initials.

So in school I clearly had artistic gifts and I won some awards.  I had an art teacher that was really important to me.  He took pride in my work and felt it reflected well on him.  He is dead now, so I feel free to share this openly.  He clearly took an inappropriate interest in me and hated himself for it.  He was prone to rages.  One day he had me in his office in the back and was standing way too close to me and acting weird (he never molested me, thankfully.)  When I finished the chore he had given me, I went back into the classroom and got back to drawing.  I always signed my work then with my first name.  He often praised my work in front of the class which embarrassed me, but felt good, too.  On this day, he took my sketchbook away from me and held it up to the class.  He said, “She signs her work with just her first name like she is fucking Picasso or something!  Who do you think you are to sign with just one name?”  He screamed this.  I was 16.  It destroyed me.  I never wanted my work to garner attention after that.  He broke something in me.  As an artist.  It took me 20 some years to undo what he did.

So sometimes I sign my work with MELISSA.

Shame on you, Mr. C.  I will tell you who I am to sign my work with one name.

I am Melissa.