I've been spending the last few nights watching...
... survival videos on YouTube!
In preparation for the worst-case scenario where Etsy doesn't like me anymore and shuts my Art Store down (maybe because of something I said that used to be normal but turned offensive overnight after a new movie came out), and my career as an artist suddenly takes a turn for the worse, and I get tossed out onto the streets, having to draw and beg for pennies and scraps.
Hey, you never know...
Artists always seem to have a tendency to go starving for some reason or other.
For example:
Sometime back I read Vincent Van Gogh's biography.
He spent most of his career starving. And by starving, I literally mean that he had no food to eat. What little money he did have (which his brother kindly sent him), he used to buy art supplies rather than food. And he numbed his hunger pangs by painting.
Eventually, he starved so badly... was so malnourished... and on top of that also struck bad by heat stroke... that...
... he did some terrible things to himself.
Things that I won't mention here.
Because all my letters are rated PG.
But:
What would I do if I were in a situation like Van Gogh and only had $1 a day to survive on?
Some stuff I learned from watching YouTube videos:
- You need to be good at foraging for wild fruits and vegetables.
Unfortunately, I'm ashamed to say that... even though I'm a herbalist, foraging is not one of my strong points. I'll have to work on that...
- If you live next to the beach, you can go hunting for live oysters.
Unfortunately, I'm mostly vegan. As most bunnies are. But I guess you can't be picky if you're starving.
- If you hang around fast food places, or even food courts, you'll always find extra condiment packages on the table that people didn't use.
Good for using with whatever you're cooking. Extra flavor.
- You can get reduced price, stale bread for pennies at a local supermarket.
You can also can get tiny portions of vegetables (like a single tiny mushroom!) for pennies. Get lots of those different tiny produce items, and you can make coleslaw. Or soup.
- Some coffee cups people litter on the ground have stickers.
And if you collect 6 stickers you can get free coffee at McDonalds. And if you give the lady at the counter a sweet enough smile, she might even give you some free butter.
I think I'm prepared enough now for any worst-case "starving artist" scenarios in case they ever pop-up.
Hmm...
But now that I think of it...
I don't really need to do all this stuff. Do I?
Even if I lose my store. And my business. And everything else...
... I still have...
... my greatest asset...
... which is my existing stock of artwork.
And unlike the typical artwork that can only be hung on a wall, with my digitalized art, I can always take them and:
- Put it on T-shirts and Mugs and sell them for a profit. Nowadays, you can even use Print on Demand sites that do it for you, so you don't have to keep any inventory or do any manual labor.
- Learn to scroll saw. Or carve wood. So I can carve my designs on wooden blocks and turn them into signs. And offer that as a service to make money.
- I could always use my art as a template for an embroidery piece. And sell that too.
- I could probably even print my art on greeting cards and sell those for a profit.
Hmm... the possibilities are endless.
Well...
It's good to know that I have some assets that I can fall back on in an emergency.
And you know what?
As long as you have my art, you have an asset that you can use to do all that too.
So you don't have to starve on the streets when disaster hits.
Or have to learn how to forage or fish for food.
Life's good!
Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
"Artist Turned Survivalist"
...
This letter "How I'm Preparing For An Etsy Mass Store Shutdown" was first published on turnip.co
