Where's Elizabeth, the Artist with a Soul?
Hello, everyone! Hope everyone is well and surviving all this
stay-at-home stuff. Honestly, the stress of the life and the Twilight Zone existence
world we seem to be living in and have endured this past year has taken a toll
on us all. It has also taken a toll on the small business owners and craftspersons like me. All of us are dealing with various
signs of anxiety and depression due to being shut in for so long. Even with
health issues that have attacked me over the last two years, open-heart surgery,
moving and then having a fainting spell that resulted in a fractured hip that
required surgery to have pins put into my hip and then enduring laying in a
hospital bed for a few weeks. That is what someone called rehab for a month and
every day of that rehab being bored out of my socks. Talk about depression and anxiety
being forced upon a person. Plus having a swab stuck up my nose once a week to
see if you have Covid only to be told your test came back negative. Well of
course it was negative because I don’t have a cold, flu or even Covid. What
cracked me up it wasn’t until I returned to the East Coast last Spring that I
had to wear a stupid mask. I drove across the country without the necessity of
wearing a mask in any other states until I hit Maryland. Tried to buy a bottle
of water and was refused because I wasn’t wearing a mask. Talk about economic
destruction. You have a customer willing to give you cash for something and you
refuse them your custom because of some stupid mask requirement that doesn’t prevent
the spread of a virus is absolute insanity.
Besides the health issues, financial troubles hit this
artist this past year. My student loan capability and personal finances ran out
which, as a result, caused me to run out of funding to finish my Ph.D. The lack
of the ability to finish my degree really threw me for a loop, so close yet
being stalled due to finances takes a real depressive situation and turns it on
its head to make things even worse. What stage was I at you ask, I was at the
dissertation stage. You know start your research and begin writing the final 150,000-word
dissertation and submit it to the school for final approval. Now I can write
150,000-word novel in three months without batting an eye, but this is more
technical because some instructor has to approve everything you research and
write during the time of your dissertation – could take up to two years to
finish and get final approval. When this whole pandemic thing started, I vowed
to myself that I was not going to allow it to put a damper on my life or
creative juices, but alas it has. I tried to be creative as much as I could,
but concentration just wasn’t there since I found myself just about living out
of my car due to a lack of finances for survival. At my age not having anywhere
to turn, the family wasn’t any help, student loans exhausted, and the economy took
a dump whereby causing everyone to be broke and not interested in buying
artwork, I was at a loss. Couldn’t find a job due to a health issue so what was I
supposed to do, there was no help on the horizon. The stress of finances made it
hard to work or be creative. The stress of not being able to work or being creative
made it hard to think straight.
All the above just made it more stressful and that made it
even harder to think to network and to be creative. I used to be able to plan
out a piece of artwork (9x12) and paint it in one day, maybe a day in a half,
take a picture, and post it on my website and social media and it would sell
almost immediately. This gave me the ability to buy additional supplies, pay my
cell phone bill, storage bill and housing responsibilities, plus put food on
the table for survival, but not anymore. Punching out one 9x12 every few weeks,
maybe a small 5x7 watercolor once a week isn’t making the financial burden
stress any easier. What was even worse
not having the ability to help other people was very stressful. How can one
help someone else when they can’t seem to figure out how to help themselves out
of a financial rut is the hardest of all thing to happen to a person? At one
time I was able to call upon my vast network for help for anyone in need, but
for some reason, my network has abandoned me on that score and they have become
selfish and downright uninterested in helping those in need.
Lately, I’ve been able to pound out small watercolor/gouache
pieces each week, but alas nothing is selling. Either I am doing something
wrong, or my work is not sellable, not sure what it is. Just wish things would
change soon so I can get back on my feet. I don’t seem to even able to write my
trilogy series these days. What is my trilogy series you ask, it is called Deception,
Control and Treason? Let’s just say it’s a story about politics and the destruction
of a nation. I have the layout completed, the character bios complete, it's
just sitting down and putting words to paper that I am finding hard to do
lately. Financial stress can truly hinder the creative juices from
flowing. This is why I created a Patreon
page https://www.patreon.com/ArtistWithASoul
to offer something in return for financial support. Posted it out and nothing.
As always, my network seems to have abandoned me. What’s funny is I posted up
the link to my Patreon and artist website links and instead of helping to
spread the word of them both with other person’s networks, I receive three cheeky
messages from people asking me to help them set up their own link pages. Not
only was I taken aback by their insensitivity and selfishness, I realized that
people have decided to take advantage of my good heart and nature believing
that I will put my own self-survival aside to help them for free. When I sent
them a message back telling them that I will charge them for my services, they
blocked me. Go figure. Everyone wants my knowledge for free, not anymore. I’ve
learned over the last couple of years that I shouldn’t have to struggle when my
knowledge is a valuable commodity worth charging for. This is why I created Life Coaching
Consulting. If you want what is in my brain, you’ll have to pay for it.
Not only can I help someone start a business, I can help them network it, create
a business plan, set up a website, find what they crave in their goals in life, and maybe even find happiness, but it comes at a price that they
should be able to afford. After making this hard decision to charge for my knowledge, I finally
started painting again! I decided that the only way out of this creative block was
through being creative. I would even consider getting back into politics again if the right
candidate came along with the purse to back up my consulting fee. #shamelessplug
Someone recently asked me why I don’t just get a real job,
believe me, if I could I would. I have no problem with working; however, my body
doesn’t like the idea and requires rest more often as I get older than I did 20
years ago. You see I lack the energy to sustain the entire day and even though my
doctors say that’s because of the heart condition, I don’t seem to qualify for
SSDI. Can you say, stuck between a rock and a hard place?
So feel free to visit my various websites, blogs, and social
media pages for updates or just out of curiosity. Feel free to browse and
purchase anything you like to help this situation. Become a patron if you so
desire, I’d love to have your support.
The links are as follows.
Websites
https://www.patreon.com/ArtistWithASoul
Blogs
http://potpourrioffrugality.blogspot.com/
http://bettykilbride.blogspot.com/
Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political
operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, journalist. business professional,
and creative artist. Ms. Kilbride holds a Masters in Criminology and a BS in
Business Management who stepped out of the loop for a while, but who is now
back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our
economy. Ms. Kilbride is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve
food for the winter months.
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