Friday, July 27, 2007

Help a poor girl out

Some folks know that I recently was laid off. I was injured at my job through no fault of my own, and when I reported it as required, they very quickly laid me off with a lame excuse.

Right now, I'm hurting a lot in the financial arena, and I'm actually considering trying to go on disability because my chronic pain seems to be getting worse, despite trying all of the standard treatments. Most medications don't work on me the way they do on normal people. For example, Benadryl does a fantastic job of calming my allergies, but it does not cause me a bit of drowsiness.

So, I'm trying to be creative about finding ways to keep my head above water. I do a little petsitting when it's available, I clean aquariums occasionally, and I am looking into modeling for non-photographic art.

With this in mind, I also just lowered some of the prices on my photography in my Etsy shop, and I will be adding more pictures if I sell some. If you like animal pictures, just take a peek at the shop and see if there's anything that catches your eye. I also have a couple of drawings in there, but they aren't too good! They're originals, though :)

4 comments:

Ruth said...

I'm sorry to hear about the money troubles. I'm having the same thing myself, being on SSI and food stamps and everything right now 'cause of disability. You have my best wishes that you can pull out of it soon!

(Also, I like your Vicodin drawing! I take generic Lorcet constantly for MS-related pain so the little check symbol made me go, "Hey!" and smile. Hehe.)

RioIriri said...

Ruth,
That drawing is one of my favorites. It has a brief story behind it: I was at an event where my husband was invited, but I could not attend, so I stayed in the car. After I finished the dragonfly drawing, I was feeling uncreative and wanted to come up with an idea for a still life. I was also about to take my last pain pill on hand, so I decided I wanted to try drawing it first to buy myself a little more time.

I have a beautiful dragonfly necklace that was made by a friend with fibro. She was selling them at a festival, and when I bought it from her, I jokingly asked her how many vicodin it took her to make. She laughed, then said, "About four!" Chronic pain: it's becoming its own culture!

Ruth said...

Indeed it is!

Oh, I hate it when I get down to my last pill. Sometimes I have to wait a day or two without because of Medicaid's silly "one refill a month" plan. I love my Medicaid, believe me, and I'd be lost without it, but sometimes it's a pain in the ass to get through all the red tape without tearing out all my hair.

I think you're a really fantastic artist and I'm glad your pain still allows you to be creative (and influences you too, apparently!). Unfortunately, the MS really screwed up my hands and my ability as an artist (portraiture, mostly) hasn't been the same since. I'm still trying, though I get easily discouraged :P

What are some of your other favorite things to draw? I really like your mermaid, but then I'm addicted to anything nautical.

RioIriri said...

Ruth,
I have a lot of different subjects; I like to draw self portraits of my body and body parts, fish, and whatever comes to mind. I played some with pastels today, but they are hard!