Nicknames/Pseudonymns/nom de plume?

stlukesguild

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I had long been an online friend of Steve/Musket who I only just found had passed. We used to spar and hold interesting (at least to me) discussions over on Wetcanvas and here on CreativeSpark (as well as offline through PMs and email. I long wondered where his moniker "Musket" came from, but never got around to asking him.

My question then, for those willing to share, is where does your online name come from or what does it mean? Perhaps just an attempt at remembering a lost friend by getting to know others a bit more.
 
Wayne, I had yours figured out shortly after I joined here. :) Kay, I would never have made this connection without your explanation - very interesting!

My name is Terri, and I used no imagination when I joined here. 😊 How dull.

My question then, for those willing to share, is where does your online name come from or what does it mean?
What about yours, SLG? What made you pick this one?
 
Zen because it's a straight-forward no-stress approach to daily life: "Haul water, chop wood, do the dishes, make a painting." and "Don't just do something, stand there!" Druid because I'm a history buff interested in the pre-Christian cultures of Northern Europe. No human sacrifices. Compounded, they give me a brand, like Lady Gaga, who I admire.
 
amo is just my initials, but it also means "I love" in Latin. The marriage that resulted in the initials didn't last, but I kept the name, in part because of those initials. It took on something of a spiritual dimension for me (or a question, anyway. How to love? What I love?), and I already had many years' worth of work signed that way . . . .

Wayne, long ago, before I had these initials, I was "alegna" in many online groups. Before the Internet as we know it now.
 
Mines based on the shotgun size. 16 gauge.
I’ve had a soft spot for the 16ga and in my younger days it was my most used gun for hunting and I still regularly use one. Its a good mid sized shotgun but was considered obsolete here in the states when I started hunting so I was the only one among my friends who used one.

My other username on some sites is redneck which the above probably explains as well.
 
Mine makes a lot of sense. I used to wear a lot of black, still do, so was given the nick of "Snoball". It was my CB handle for years so when I joined Wet Canvas I just kept it and same here. I saw no reason to be someone else.
 
I've had the name Stlukesguild since my first email address.

Weyden_St_Luke_Drawing_a_Portrait_of_the_Madonna_undated.600.jpg


There is a tale of Saint Luke painting/drawing a portrait of the Virgin and the Baby Jesus which I knew from the Renaissance painting by Rogier van der Weyden. As a result of this tale, Saint Luke was claimed as the patron saint of artists and especially painters. In many towns, the artists' or painters' guild (akin to a union) was known as The Guild of Saint Luke or Saint Luke's Guild. As a painter with a penchant for art history, I just glommed onto this moniker a couple of decades ago and it has stuck ever since. For some time I used the pseudonym, David Saint-Luc on Facebook (my first name and the French variant) in order to avoid students who would look up teachers' names on Facebook. Today, most of my students see Facebook as social media for old people and so I've gone back to using my real name.
 
Our choices of noms de plume can be revealing. I chose mine because of the character traits ascribed to Hermes (Mercury): he was the god of science and technology and the messenger of the gods. I am a scientist and I like to think of myself as a good teacher and communicator. Unfortunately I don't share his hunky good looks, as depicted in countess classical sculptures. 😢

Hermes 1.jpg

Mercury sculpture in Louvre 1.jpg
 
Artyczar was a partial joke, but I do have ancestors from Russia, so I thought it a little funny to say I was the "Tzar" of all things "art" because my life totally and completely revolves around art. I also initially liked that it was neither male or female sounding and was pretty anonymous when I first participated in online art forums. I never advertised my art or my website for the first 10 years.

I had a few other handles that were similar in that way, like "EZ," "Linus," and "West." EZ came from the initials to a fake name I used when I wrote horoscopes for a local newspaper in early 1990: Ezmeralda Zane. Linus was because I had first used a Linux machine back in the early days of computers, and I was "West" on Saatchi chat when it existed because I lived on the west coast of the US when most everyone else were from the UK and Europe. And I noticed I was taken much more seriously when people sorta assumed I was male. I am neither by the way. It was just a strange observation.
 
On other online forums, I used harrybee and artbrut….IMO, kind of masculine sounding. But when I joined Wet Canvas, I decided it was time to be something closer to…me. So because my “great” art influences were comic books and cartoons (cuz I’m so classy), I thought of Olive Oyl. I wasn’t the greatest fan in the world or anything but she had both a color in her name and the medium I use. So…Voila!

Plus, I usually wear my hair in a little knot. My old-school Italian uncle once said, “What do you got there? An olive oyl?” I thought that was pretty funny. But unlike the 2D Olive, I’m hardly a damsel in distress or a tangle of fluttery nuttiness although, she’s closer to the real me then the other fake me’s. And when I came to THIS forum, I just “abstracted” her into a black olive which added in a little twist of Italian. Black Olives Matter!

Obviously, I don’t take things very seriously.
Especially myself.
 
I grew up on the East Coast and found birch trees very interesting 🤨
In 2000 we moved to the Southwest and I found aspen trees. We lived at the foot of the Sangre d Christo Mtns. Aspens became my new love ❤️
I became obsessed 😍 with them
I would go up into the mtns most days and talk to, paint and yes hug aspens, I was born!



I
 
Oh Aspenman…

I was born on the East Coast too (CT) and lived in RI, NJ, NC, NY, MA and OH. I STILL love birch trees and toted a big birch across country to live with me here but still, I see they live in the Southwest, too.

Now living in NM, the Sangres de Christos are my dream mountains and I once said, “I’d marry them if I could.” But that would be weird. They‘re 2 hours away but instead, today, I can see the Sandias from my house. Not too bad…but a different kind of mountain range. I think of them as maybe more majestic and rugged but not as “earthy” or “soulful.”

But guess what? My new cookie cutter has has a tiny backyard with only two things in it…so far. And they’re aspens! They’re tall and straight with white bark, and the leaves make such a nice sound when they rustle in the wind, and they throw dappled shade and are right now…my favorite things about my house.

I haven’t hugged them yet, though.
It’s still a very new relationship.
 
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Oh Aspenman…

I was born on the East Coast too (CT) and lived in RI, NJ, NC, NY, MA and OH. I STILL love birch trees and toted a big birch across country to live with me here but still, I see they live in the Southwest, too.

Now living in NM, the Sangres de Christos are my dream mountains and I once said, “I’d marry them if I could.” But that would be weird. They‘re 2 hours away but instead, today, I can see the Sandias from my house. Not too bad…but a different kind of mountain range. I think of them as maybe more majestic and rugged but not as “earthy” or “soulful.”

But guess what? My new cookie cutter has has a tiny backyard with only two things in it…so far. And they’re aspens! They’re tall and straight with white bark, and the leaves make such a nice sound when they rustle in the wind, and they throw dappled shade and are right now…my favorite things about my house.

I haven’t hugged them yet, though.
It’s still a very new relationship.

Thanks-have you ever read about aspens? It's quite amazing how they come to be in "groves"
 
No, not yet. But I see that they have a lot of “up shoots” or whatever they’re called. And I think I’m getting that it might not be the best kind of tree for this particular backyard which is just too small to contain them. Both of them are (stupidly) planted in a small raised area, surrounded by planter bricks or whatever THEY’RE called. We just had a landscaper say to transplant them to a larger/better part of the yard, it will cost $800 per tree. I mean…$1600 to move them both a few feet over is something painful to consider. Or, we can chop them down (they’re still young) and get smaller, more appropriate trees, for $300-$400 each. I hate this option even more.

Because the “Aspen Issue“ will have to be dealt with soon, I’d better get out there now and hug them all up…

(Oh, and for the “who cares?” record, I moved with a birch BRANCH…not a whole tree.)
 
Our choices of noms de plume can be revealing. I chose mine because of the character traits ascribed to Hermes (Mercury): he was the god of science and technology and the messenger of the gods. I am a scientist and I like to think of myself as a good teacher and communicator. Unfortunately I don't share his hunky good looks, as depicted in countess classical sculptures. 😢

View attachment 21383
View attachment 21384
If you will indulge me, I would like to include this sculpture I found. It's another sculpture of Hermes that in no way resembles me!

Hermes 2.jpg
 
I guess mine is totally obvious and unimaginative, since it's my first name and last initial. On some forums I have the opposite, first initial and last name. Don't really use a nickname in real life either. Not sure I ever had one that stuck nor that I encouraged. But I do have a secret nom de plume if I ever really do write the great novel, for which you'll just have to wait.
 
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