Stop blaming me

Please stop blaming me for not being ready for this mess we are in.

I had made some posts in the past and some in my group life as an art fair artist. Some comments that I read had may me think. Having booth fee return is great but I looking at how the calendar is shaping up and how would manage next year if things keep going the way they are going.

I always say there are a few categories of artists doing the shows: sole income comes from the shows; art shows are part of the main but it has other arts-related outlets to create income; the artists spouse works and shows are 50% of the household income; artists spouse works and the art show is just extra income or vacation money; artists that retire and use the show income as extra but not mandatory, I am forgetting some other category. Why it does matter because depending on what category you fall you may get income from the government faster than others. I personally do not think I gonna get any government help other than 1200.

Some people that are clear that support the President had to say that you need to have 6 months of savings. While is not a red or blue thing I think you should aim to do that. If you follow me you know that is almost impossible for me to have. I know a lot of people that are in the same vote or worst. Now let's say you have it now what does that mean. The most artist only work 8 months of the year, let me explain that. Northern artists if they do not go to Florida they may not start doing shows until April and most likely they had to stop doing shows at the best case in December. So that is five months with no income. So if you have six months of savings at this point you only have money until May. If you are doing in shows in Florida like me you may have income until February because most shows got cancel in March and April. Even I only do one show in March or April these are just holding me until May when my season starts. During this period I am paying booth and jury fees.

So far I had not had in March or April where intake is greater than the outtake. Basically, if I am even by April I am counting my blessings. I am assuming most artists with art show as the only source of income are in the same boat. May comes around depending on what shows you are doing you May get one good, one bad and one great show. Basically, by July you are hoping to be catch up with bills and start seeing the buffer for those months with no shows go up. The month of August is the month that put the most money into the savings. September and October things slow down and little extra income comes. Shows in southern areas in October, November and December are usually just cash flow. If you live in the northern states IHMO is not worth traveling to Florida or Arizona for shows late in the year especially with the election going on.

This year I was looking forward since last year was my best year in a while. I finally expend money on my display and was looking forward to Fort Worth. In March before the crisis happens I overspend because the way that year was shaping even with some coronavirus cases started to show up (The administration should be able to handle the problem if it arises). I was man I should not but if I wait until closer to the show I may not be ready and then the following show is two weeks later let's be positive and keep moving forward he can not screw up himself because of he is so selfish that won’t ket this stop his reelection.

With getting 20 to 30 hours of art installation you better fix the issues in van storage and everything that you could not do last year because you were still recovering from the scam. Now, crisis-hit IL and now I am looking at my dining room with all my work. Orders in the lab to be ship or in process. I am well you have it so hopefully by May we go back to do shows, wait June or wait in July or wait for August or wait for nothing this year.

There is a great possibility that the art show won’t come back until the sports arenas are allowed to let people in. What happens if that goes until the end of 2021? I stop think you you still have the art installation business. When the restaurants close my hours drop to zero to 10 hours a week. The savings account would only hold me a month after no income coming. Once again I am thinking I do not know if the unemployment benefits will kick in or if I will qualify since I am sole proprietor, I do not if any of the grants will come my way, because of the scam my credit is the toilet so no business loan, etc. I am looking at this I am wondering what I can do. I have been able to operate because the cash flow never stops and I been working on cash on hand only for two years and counting because of the scam not having credit cards it seems like a blessing right now. Friends tell me to do online sales. I know before the crisis the sales were none or slim from the website. I am finally was getting 10 visits per day but no sales. So I am asking myself what was the point of working so hard. I not waiting for the government to save me but I also do not want the government to put me on the street and become homeless.

I know conservative wants states to have more control. This is a national problem. This problem had shown the need to medicare for all or version where you can add to basic health insurance. This problem should have never got to this point. This is worst administration and is responsible for the mess we are in. People still defend him and expecting them to still do it even if they are dying while he is a bunker. People can not get close to him or Pence with passing temperature check. He still playing this down, not doing what should be done and blaming others. He hoping that democrats died and media other than FOX News died in the process. Still with everything going on they still making the federal government weaker. Really at this pace, we won’t have a nation.

If you think that people are responsible and they should be able to handle this you are not living in the real world. This a problem that was created by a virus that we knew about it in December and was play down over and over. Now Fox, right wing media companies and Trump say that they did not play down. The country is basically in lockdown because of Trump's actions, FOX News & right-wing media do not sound the alarm. Still are not doing the stay at home orders. There is no vaccine. We are not testing everybody going around to know who is healthy or not. It is clear that only big companies is they care. This had been using to make money and not help the people.

I know we will get out of the mess but the states to recover faster will be CA, Oregon, Washington, IL, New York and Texas the rest good luck. I will say it again we need to elect people that care about the country not them and that is not Trump. My hope we get a Democrat President to once again fix the mess the Republican president put us in. Of course, while we recover they will blame the democrat president for the problem and once again they forgot how we got here in the first place. Let's see what the silent majority keeps saying about the liberals and so call lazy and stupid color people.

Yes, I feel that this year when is over I only will be happy is a Democrat is coming into office. If we get another four years of him we won't be here when 2024 rolls around.

So please stop blaming me for something that everybody is facing and we all know it can last two years and nobody while being able to handle it.

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  • Oscar,
    It takes a great mind, like Al’s to remove some of the noise from the discourse of your post. And as he so aptly pointed out, some misinterpretation of your thoughts. Although I do not have the same intellectual acumen, professional degree nor the eloquence as my friend Al, I do want to offer another perspective.
    In an article regarding the COVID 19 pandemic, a Harvard professor stated that emotions are the filters through which we view the facts.
    The facts are that COVID 19 is a virus that can be deadly. It is spread through human contact. At this time, there is no proven medicine that will cure the disease or prevent someone from contracting the virus. What has been proven, as fact, is that social distancing does slow the spread of the virus, thus mitigating the death rate.
    In order to institute social distancing, drastic, if not draconian measures needed to be put in place. The freedoms we as Americans are very accustom to have been reduced or eliminated entirely.
    The emotions that are invoked by these retractions of freedoms runs the gamut. To that end, those emotions will characterize how one views the facts. More importantly, those emotions will influence how one deals with the facts.
    Although no one can tell someone how to feel, if one’s emotions that are filtering the facts are anger, frustration, fear and resentment it stands to reason one will feel desperate. Desperation often will cause one to panic or blame or lash out. Those behaviors can be paralyzing and counterproductive. Perhaps what would be more helpful during these unprecedented times, is to take this opportunity to do some serious introspection. Everyone is a genius when things are good. But, as Albert Einstein said, doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity. It might be healthier if we all were to evoke emotions within us that would assist us in our ability to change and adapt and use that filter in which to view the facts.

  • Oscar,

     

    Wow. Could you have imagined this sort of response to your original post?  Blatant political comments can blind and enrage some people making it difficult for them to see the forest for the trees and maybe you’d omit some of that if you had the chance to write it again.  But it shouldn’t be that difficult to see the forest of your sentiments. To my eye you wrote with great feeling and poignancy about having your career as an artist, which you chose knowing the risks, to be put on the edge of extinction by forces outside your control. In that you spoke for many.  Making a living as an artist is like walking a tightrope in the best of times, and art fair artists in particular should know that our livelihood as artists is at the mercy of countless forces outside our control. This one is a whopper of a force and will wipe out many of our friends.

     

    So to be lectured to in a condescending, sanctimonious way about personal responsibility and self reliance, as if you were a 16 year old rather than a grown man, must feel especially galling coming from fellow artists. It would to me.  You would think that artists, especially, would be able to hear the raw feeling in what you were saying, would be attuned to your desperation really, and not indulge In and impose upon you in a judgmental way the lovely illusion that we can control our lives and protect ourselves from unwitting catastrophe. For surely we cannot, and anyone with an ounce of real adversity in their life knows this.  No dose of Atlas Shrugged or The Little Engine That Could for that matter can change that. So there is lots of blame to go around or maybe just a blind rage against the Gods and fate. We will not all come through  this economic disaster but I hope you do.

  • Oscar, No this virus is not your fault or anyone's fault. People get sick is it their fault, sometimes because of the lifestyle they choose but no one wants to get sick and pay the bills but what alternative do you have. This happened, so we deal with it as with other things that happen in our lives some good and some bad. So you feel it is the Governments fault NO it is Chinas fault if you have a need to blame someone. You are not alone many, many people are out of work and I do feel for each one of them. But what do you profess that we do? Do you have a solution? Should we turn everything inside out just for you? IE: Artsists. My galleries are doing all they can for me with virtual 3-d showings. The gallery owner is starting an on line Gallery. We can try to do as much as we can for ourselves. Everything has been cancelled, juried shows in venues that I normally can sell my art. I can not force someone to do anything it is not within my power. All I can do is ride it out and make choices that are best for me, be creative and hope for the best. 

    I do wish everyone well, and only wonderful shows when we all get on the other side of this.

    I have been furloughed from my job and who knows  when I will get an unemployment check.

    I have been in your shoes too. Hell, I am 69 years old and still working. Do I complain, NO, as I choose to do this and yes, I have been furloughed from my job as it was deemed  a non essential business. 

    Good luck to all and please don't blame anyone, just like a heart attack it just happened.

  • Kathleen, so is my fault all this problem and dealings. I guess you read and understand what you want. Suggest to read my post again. I just sitting at home waiting for the mess the end. I already seeing August shows canceled. So basically I only have hope for one month of shows and start again next year. I am glad that I do not depend of shows only. Well best of luck to all of you.
  • Oscar! You are the 1 who never seems to stop blaming...YOU are your worst enemy! When you said(YOUR words) "I think that artist no think about the regular people they do not see them as customers." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! The "regular" as you say (sounds insulting), but your words, are OUR CUSTOMERS too! I believe all Artists care & worry about ALL of our customers -regular-small or big or however you want to call them! Pls. take a breathe....breathe...it WILL get better. 

  • Connie, the few art installations I had done the customers are telling me they can not pay their staff if it goes pass June. If there a second wave they gonna be wipe out. It affecting lower income people badly and specially minorities. I think that artist no think about the regular people because they do not see them as customers. Sadly as soon as I speak about that it gets even worst so I am happy you posted your comment. So far no federal aid had co e my way.
  • Sure artists who exhibit at events are in a bad place, but 6.6 million people last week and 6.7 more this week applied for unemployment. Now, I'd guess sometimes when you are applying for a top show you'd think about a million people are also applying, right? But there are not 13 million artists. People in my neighborhood who are out of work are the hair dresser, the truck driver who drives a new car hauler, the massage therapist, the guy on the corner who runs a very cool jazz quintet, the realtor/auctioneer, the zumba teacher (although periodically he puts a speaker on his front porch and the neighbors come to dance on the sidewalk, lawn and street, distantly spaced), the waitress, the pharmaceutical rep. These are all pretty much people who chose these occupations. We're all in this. Because we are living in our art fair bubble we do tend to take it personally.

  • Virginia, the problem with your point of view is there only 7 states they still open in an unsafe environment. No matter what job you have if you can not work from home you out of a job. My point is that is not my choice if I want to work or not. The choice was made by the government. The states are placing stay at home order because is the only way the country will get out of this mess because the federal level had failed. This mess should never happen in this country. Regarding art shows, I enjoy doing them. I also have three sources to create income and all of them are been affected. So basically you are blaming me for something I did not have a choice if I can do. It comes back to the title of my post Stop blaming me. AKA do not blame art fair artists because they can not support themselves and had become a burn to the country because people playing politics. 

  • Hi Oscar, I am not offended by your post as you are entitled to your opinion.

    Just remember we are all in charge of ourselves and the choices we make. Let me repeat that "the choices You make " . I have been out of the art show business for quite a bit think last show was 5 years ago. The handwriting was on the wall well before that so I got out and got a job and focused on my Galleries that represented me.

    Out door art shows were always a crap shoot because there are so many variables involved, weather, right customers, economy, and on and on. The one thing you can control is if you want to still make a living doing this. You say don't blame me ,but again it was your choice and no one else's. So there is no one else to blame. Policemen, fireman, soldiers, sales people make choices all day long and they have chosen do do these jobs no one forced them this was a choice of their own God given free will to do so.

    So please stop blaming things that happen to others on a certain political group. you have the choice to keep doing what you do or not, just as you have the choice to seek  further instruction or education that allows you to seek other employment.

  • Connie, I debate for two days about posting this in three groups. The residents of the USA work very hard and for the first time in my life, I never see something like this. I do not where it is gonna end or the outcome. I do not blame anyone for the virus but how it had been handle it is bad. I work United Way in third world countries and how things happen over there it makes sense or you can understand this I am sorry if I insult anyone but ...............

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