Welcome to My Gallery!

Currently Practicing - Not going insane.
Requests - Closed.
Trades - Closed.
Commissions - Closed.
Prints - No.

If you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, requests or commissions, please leave me a note. If you like or dislike my art, or have any suggestions as how I should improve it, please leave me a comment. I like those. Don't be shy!

Edit:
Livejournal that is updated *even less* than this page: [link]

Entry:

Yeah, so I never update this thing. I haven't done anything new and finished in the way of art since I took a break from school. It leads me to believe that perhaps I wasn't interested in art for the right reasons. I've always been told that I should be a writer. I'm constantly correcting people's grammar, and writing what amount to small novels on how I feel about things when in correspondence with my friends. I'm seeing a new possibility open up in my life, and some amazing opportunities showing themselves for Tiina. Keeping my fingers crossed.

My mother has fallen into a very, very bad situation. She's out of money, and relying on my father (whom she divorced six years prior) to pay for her living expenses. Her parents passed away a few years ago, and she has let her situation get gradually worse. She pushes away help, she's been completely tactless, and she's constantly acting like she's somehow entitled to the help she's getting, especially from my father. She blames him for "putting her in this situation". She still smokes despite what every one of her doctors tell her, she's on painkillers, she's got very few teeth in her mouth and can't eat properly. On top of that, she's become depressed from living alone. She goes food shopping and crams the food in the fridge, but hardly ever eats it. Her freezer is full to the door with stuff carefully wedged in like Tetris. From what I can tell, she's been subsisting on Starbucks Frappuccino coffee drinks, soups from Whole Foods, cigarettes, and bread, for almost two years. Finally, a doctor has her on Ensure, for nutrition, since she's basically starved for vitamins and protein.

She's got other problems going on, one of which I can only guess is Delusional Parasitosis combined with malnutrition. She claims that there are "bugs in the walls" and "parasites in her body", even going as far as to blame them for her current illnesses. She's mentioned that they're "in her teeth", and "burrowing under her skin". She's gone as far as to begin picking parts of her flesh off, and claiming that it "makes it better" and it "goes away after I pull the thing out". She's even saved many of said "samples" in plastic bags to show the doctor "evidence" of her "infestation". We were at the doctor's office, at one point, and she borrowed tweezers from the nurse, and picked at her arm with them until it bled, right in front of the doctor. She's completely unabashed. Her other doctors give her odd looks, but they can't really say anything, since it's not their field of expertise. She's been unable to see a psychotherapist, because she can not afford one. *I* can't afford to keep going back and forth to her house to spend all day driving her around.
She has a storage warehouse FULL of stuff that is both hers, and mine (which I can't reach until she deals with hers). She can not afford to pay for it anymore, and she can not start earning an income until she sells stuff on eBay (which was her old work-at-home business). The problem is, she has limited inventory, since it's all in the storage warehouse. Also, she just bought a new digital camera, and computer with which to begin the business, yet she has refused our offers to help her relearn how to use it, because it's "not the right time". She's now, officially, out of time. We're heading over to her place in an hour to show her how to use it.

The big problem is that I'm still looking for a job. So many places are just not hiring, and I don't want to apply back at Pet Supermarket, where I'll see animals die and go to potentially ignorant or abusive homes every day. I'm tired of getting a bit of a run around, and I've been told to "apply online" but I have never seen that result in so much as an interview. I like doing things that relate to helping people directly, and I've had fun as a cashier. On recommendation, I've considered doing bar-tending, but that requires schooling, which requires money. People seem to be looking for specialists in their field, or people with experience, as no one wants to take chances with "new recruits" these days. It can be intimidating. I need to go back to school at some point an finish up my degree. Maybe I'll start something myself.

-J