I want to take a minute to talk about the importance of personal work. Especially when you feel bogged down. The most crippling thing you can do to yourself as an artist is say "I'm only going to make art if I'm being paid." This mentality will creatively bankrupt you. We can get caught up in this because we often feel like we deserve to be compensated for our creativity. Which is true, we do. But you can't pigeon hole yourself into a corner where your clients dictate how creative you are allowed to be.
Personal work is important because it allows you to take an idea and make it truly yours, and yours alone. It opens up your mind and allows you to think outside of the parameters of the industry.
I've had a vision in my head for weeks, that I should douse a model in clay or paint and let it crack and dry, and shoot that. Being the incredibly smart person that I am, I decided I should try it on myself before I used a model as a guinea pig. And I am so glad I did. There were so many unseen issues and obstacles that my team and I had to overcome logistically to make these photos a reality, and now that I have those under control, I'm ready to try this process on another human being.
Along the way, my team took some behind the scenes photos of the process. Special thanks to Emily McGonigle for helping me mastermind this, and also for being my human shutter release on all of these photos. She's an amazing photographer in her own right and I couldn't have pulled this off without her!
