About a year ago I noticed a new term being used by artists in my community: personal work.
"Personal work" entails work that you make for no person, for no reason, and for no money.
Personal work for me is work that comes from the deepest part of me and 'demands' to be made. Most artists make Personal Work their whole lives, and only at a certain point, do we start making commercial work or commission-oriented art.
Personal work doesn’t have to make sense or cohere or be on time, and it often comes from a very deep place. It’s an absolutely liberated form of expression.
Though it is made for no reason and usually for no money, personal work is the most valuable kind of work artists can make for ourselves and for our culture.
Who wrote this?
I’m a painter, I make comics, and sometimes I do computer stuff!
- Becky Jewell