April Hope Burnham Glass.

April: I always want women to use their maiden names. (See the article linked above.) For. Just. This. Reason.

One of my favorite sections of our small local paper is Name Changes. I love seeing when adults radically change their names Just. Cuz. They. Can.

I can’t answer that for you, Tine. Sounds like something you will have to explore for yourself and see what feels right.

Stephanie: See if this helps: https://dy-online.com/name-your-art-business/ It’s already linked in the text above, but there might be additional comments on that post that you would find helpful.

My surname is my married name, even though my former husband and I divorced. But, we stayed friends and he passed away a couple of years ago, so I have mixed feelings about changing it. We also have an adult son, so sharing a surname is nice.

Here it gets sticky: I am already somewhat known in my career field under my legal full name (married name), so I’d like to keep my artist and my day job identities separate. I mostly paint abstract art, but lately, I’ve gotten into nude portraits. Also, my married last name is a very very common Asian name and I am not Asian, so it might be confusing. Also, I’d be at the bottom of the search results with a very common first and last name.

What are your thoughts on using a diminutive version of my first name and just my last initial? Would that be professional enough?

Keep your full name in whatever you use, Jessica.