The story behind the name

By Hannah Cawthorne

Now our lovely gallery has been open a few months, maybe it’s time to reflect a little on the  journey that got us to this point. I know from chatting to people in the gallery that there is a lot of  curiosity about how this new venture came about, who the people are behind it, and what our  vision was when we set Indigo Crow up. I could write a LOT about all these topics, but let’s start  from a relatively simple start point and take it from there. Let’s look at our name “Indigo Crow”  and where that came from. This is probably the number one question I get asked in the gallery –  “Where did the name come from?” I like to think the question is asked in a tone of impressed  curiosity, but maybe sometimes there’s some puzzled bewilderment thrown in too! The short answer to the question of “where” it came from is- our imaginations! There was no previous connections with crows or indigo – we had to brainstorm lots of ideas for several hours  before we struck metaphorical gold.  

So, it went down like this. We were all sat around Sally’s dining table (if you want to picture the  scene, imagine a stereotypical artists house – full or eccentric knick knacks, colourful artwork and dressers overflowing with unique pieces of tableware. Also, a great coffee machine. Also,  miniature Daschunds. I know, right?!) So, the mood was good as we had the latest in the series of  meetings around this idea that had been gradually growing amongst us to set up our own gallery.  It was coming into tighter and tighter focus, to the point where it actually looked like an  achievable reality, so we were excited. But now the tricky bit that could really define this project  and propel us towards future success. Or not, if we didn’t nail it. So, no pressure then!  We started throwing some ideas into the arena, only to have them torn apart by the lions of other  peoples opinions. It was brutal. “Ooh no – not that!”, “Hmm. sounds like a breakfast cereal”, “No!  Next!” It was brutal. Which was fair enough, as most of the ideas were objectively terrible. All in  the category I named “Bad Apprentice team names.” (Is there such a thing as a good Apprentice  team name? Discuss.) You know the kind of thing. One word things that are meant to distill  everything you stand for into one super dynamic slogan but are actually just massive cliches.  Vision. Create. Unique. Splash. That kind of nonsense. We were going nowhere fast, and getting a  bit annoyed with each other to boot. Also, a nasty rift was threatening to develop between the  paint based artists and the non-painters (felters, ceramics and glass), who were objecting to any  names featuring paint, paintbrushes, palettes, etc. (also all terrible so they weren’t wrong).

Then  Eve got us the breakthrough. She said “It doesn’t have to be something directly related to art! It  just has to be memorable! It can be silly too. Something like….I dunno…. Pink Gorilla!” An awed  hush fell around the table. She may be a professional faffer with fluff (self-described), with an  American accent even though she’s British, but surely Eve was onto something here! A few other  people threw some names into the ring. The formula was easy to pick up. Colour plus animal!  Simple, memorable, effective! And as we were artists, maybe some less common colour names.  So not red, but burgundy or crimson. There was yellow rhinos, teal giraffes, navy chimpanzees,  pink puffins and all sorts, galloping around Sally’s table all of a sudden. Lots of strong  suggestions. But no killer one that we all agreed was, “The ONE!”  

So what to do? Yep – maybe you skipped ahead a few steps in your brain and you’re already  there. We did it. We did the thing. Paper was procured. And pens. And a hat, well, bowl. Two in  fact. Do you see where this is going? Everyone wrote down a colour on one piece of paper, folded  it in half and put it in bowl one. Then animal names went into another. And then the chief  adjudicator pulled them out and noted down the results. There was an azure sheep, an orange  flamingo and a purple seahorse. And then out she came. Indigo Crow. That awed hush again.  Someone said “I guess that would make us “The Crows”. Pause. Everyone looks around the table  at the group of (mainly) middle-aged women. Don’t get me wrong – we’re a glamorous bunch.  More colourfully dressed than the average gang of gals, for sure. Some of us even own miniature  Daschunds. But we have lived…full lives. There is a weight of experience there. There was a  pause. Someone else said “It’s a MURDER of crows, isn’t it?!”. Then pretty much everyone all at  once – “It’s PERFECT!!!”. And so Indigo Crow, and along with them the terrifying collective “The  Crows”, was born in that moment. Fiona, in her usual super efficient way, had within moments  looked online and found the domain name was available, and so she bought it! And so our long  held dream, brought to fruition over many months of wistful daydreaming that gradually turned  into more and more tangible and believable fact, took a huge step forward that day. And a couple  of miniature Daschunds had such a fuss made over them they needed to lie down for the rest of  the day. 

The End.