Angelic Songs (2004)
Working on faith
I’ve been fortunate enough to have lengthy periods of no-time-to-blink work, so doing a piece for myself is a luxury. It’s also a luxury I make the effort to realize as often as possible, even if it’s just the occasional quicker still life or whatever. Pieces done for yourself have some very obvious benefits and one important downside.
The downside, of course, is you work without pay, or at least no guaranteed pay. Occasionally you can see that the image you’re doing might make a good print or the original might be saleable. Other times your personal muse might lead you to paint something with no purely commercial value. It might be a good reflection of your abilities, and may even make it into your portfolio but may not be the sort of thing the average person wants on his or her wall. Or, it may be more artsy still and have few practical uses outside of the fact that you enjoyed creating it. Or, it may be a completely different genre or style and so not marketable without special effort. I’ve done all of these kinds.
