The future of my Patreon (Patreon)

It is extremely important that I stress before going any further that none of this means any immediate changes are happening. I am not quitting art. I am not shutting the place down. Bear this in mind.

That said, the writing has been on the wall for me for a while now.

From the financial perspective-

Every time I do really well and start making more money, the cost of living sky rockets around me and I just sit spinning my wheels instead of actually getting ahead.

From the creative/financial perspective-

Every time somebody new pledges, two people leave. My growth has been abysmal. There's a laundry list of nuanced reasons for it (I don't need more advice please don't give me any) but the bottom line is I just do not appeal to the modern masses and I cannot compete in today's online art environment. I'm a relic in terms of mindset, general art style, and I don't tend to cater to any one specific fetish or sexuality. Further- I hate doing commissions all the time.

That is NOT me being unappreciative for the people I DO appeal to though. I am honestly more in love with my smaller more dedicated audience than I would be a huge mass of unpredictable people. It's just a matter of profits I am addressing in this post.

So what's my point?

In the meat space world I am trying to find a different job. I used to work at a winery, but that place closed, which is why I don't work there anymore.

The difficulties are thus: I do not own a car, I live in a rural area, and I am (by official actual-paperwork I went and put the work in to find out for real diagnoses) unable to work big box retail. That strikes Wal Mart.

That leaves me fairly stranded. So I've been looking into possible online work, getting into the floral business my sister works in, or hoping for some miracle opportunity.

Despite the hurdles, I can't live on my art anymore and I don't see this place ever growing like it used to. So I am looking.

Here's what that actually means for my art and support sites-

For now I need to keep them up as I have been because I still don't have anything else. However, even when I do find some work I do not intend to close them.

What I intend to do is consider them a side hustle rather than my focus. What changes will you notice? Probably not many. Sad reality is I have been so miserably stressed out for so long now that I haven't been able to work at a smooth pace for years. Chances are there will never be an "art goal" up though.

That said- Art might actually become more frequent. Because relying solely on it to make money has made the process far less enjoyable for me. But as a hobby people throw money at if they feel like it, and I do not RELY on anymore? I will probably love doing it again a lot more like I used to.

So it could ultimately be better overall for everybody.

Just need to find some outside work first so I can stop dreading homelessness every god damned month.

Thank you for reading! Since you made it all the way down, I will also let you know that yes, I have some art coming up very soon. :)