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UPDATE // coronavirus stress (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-16 16:50:54
Imported:
2022-04

Content

Hey guys! I haven’t updated since last week, my apologies for that. I’ve still been creating art and working on this month's sketchbook tour. The content is lined up and ready to go, but emotionally, I was very affected by the pandemic that took hold in the last few weeks. I was keeping a very close eye on the developments, because me and my partner had a trip to New York City coming up (we would have flown out today!) and so I needed to know whether it would be safe to continue that trip. I had an incredibly bad feeling about all of it. We had already decided to cancel when we heard about the travel ban, which honestly came as a huge relief because it confirmed my feelings about it.

Since that time, two of my workshops have been cancelled and I’ve moved the most important things from my studio space to my house so that I can work from home for the next few months. Things escalated so quickly! I was very stressed out and on high alert because I felt like this pandemic was being underestimated in my home country, but now serious measures have been implemented and the people around me are starting to take it seriously too. It’s time for me to shift the focus to creating art and working again! Here's a shot of my home office from which I will be creating art for all of you:

I’ll resume posting this week and will continue to create content for you guys in the coming months. These are incredibly uncertain times for many artists, who are losing income from cancelled events and jobs. I’m incredibly lucky - not only do I have a client that I can work with to compensate for the cancelled workshops, but I have you guys here on Patreon. Your support is keeping me afloat right now and I can’t even begin to say how much this means to me. I promise I will make it worth your while by creating art, sharing knowledge, and making videos for you! Thank you SO much for your support, and I hope you are well. 

Let me know how you are doing - how has this pandemic affected you?

Comments

Anonymous

I am in Los Angeles where we are still earlier on than Europe, but things are getting very serious here. I was actually laid off from work yesterday (I work at a karate school that had to shut down), so things are very difficult and stressful financially right now. I am still doing my online art classes and I hope this whole situation will give me more chances to do more commission artwork, but it is such a nightmare. I can imagine how stressful it is for the artists who rely on convention booths now that everything is being cancelled. Hang in there Lois, we are all in this mess together! :’)

FaroreNightclaw

I am in the San Francisco Bay Area where my county and the surrounding counties are being put on home shelter quarantine at midnight tonight - all nonessential businesses are being closed, and residents are discouraged from leaving their homes for nonessential reasons (it sounds like police won't be arresting people who are found to be outside for nonessential reasons, but they will be telling them to return home). We just got a bunch of groceries and are now ready to start keeping our cupboards up to date with Amazon or Safeway orders (we were pretty much out of food from being on a trip and not filling up beforehand, but grocery deliveries were all at least a week out so we had to go to a local store first). My wife is working from home, as are all our housemates (they all work for the same company, except one who is on disability) and as an artist my job is all wfh anyway, so no change here. My wife has pretty severe agoraphobia so being confined to the house is not all that different for us since she is very rarely up for going out anyway. We got our trip to a convention in Canada out of the way before all this happened. My wife is concerned because we stopped on the way home to visit her 70+ 'chosen mom' (mom-like friend, not biological mom) and she's worried we might have exposed her, but there have been no recorded cases of anyone at the convention being diagnosed with the virus, so hopefully that's all good. A couple people have been tested for it, but in all cases it turned out to just be regular cold/flu/con crud, not COVID-19. We've been back for almost a week and have no symptoms yet, but even if it wasn't for the home quarantine we'd be staying home as much as possible anyway for the next week at least to make sure we weren't putting anyone else in danger. Stores here have been crazy, our housemate went to the grocery store at 6am this morning when they opened and the parking lot was almost full, the store was a zoo, and they were already out of many items by the time she made it to various aisles. People on NextDoor, the community app/forum, have been posting all kinds of finger-pointing and shaming stuff at each other for 'hoarding supplies' when in many cases the person they're getting upset about is either providing for a large household or just... getting normal groceries (like buying a case of bottled water at a time). I feel like the people who are finger-pointing are probably the ones doing a lot of the hoarding themselves, since they seem so paranoid about other people taking 'their stuff'. Being in the states, Trump has been doing a TERRIBLE job at dealing with this, lying about it and refusing tests to try to keep the official numbers down to make himself look better for re-election soon, and has even been to gatherings where there was exposure and then refused to get tested himself (despite being a self-proclaimed germophobe). At this point even Republicans in Congress are starting to push for guaranteed universal income (or something like it, temporarily), waiving of rent/housing payments (also temporarily), forcing companies to give all of their employees 2 weeks or more paid sick leave to keep them at home but not losing income, making COVID-19 testing and quarantining free (why the fuck is it not already?!), etc. Basically everything the leftists and socialists have been pushing for for years while everyone even slightly right (including many Democrats and liberals) stick their fingers in their ears and screech about the evils of communism. I'm really crossing my fingers that Bernie Sanders gets the Democratic nomination since his policies would deal with a situation like this WAY better than anything Trump or even his Democratic rival Joe Biden would do.. but Biden won Super Tuesday, more or less, and it's knocked a lot of the wind out of Sanders' sails even though the majority of delegates have not chosen a candidate yet. So that's pretty uncertain too. Everything's sort of up in the air right now and it's only going to get worse. Feels like we're staring down the barrel of some sort of apocalyptic situation and while myself and mine are pretty distanced from the effects right now, it's hard to imagine what the future will bring and it's almost definitely going to start affecting us more soon.

Anonymous

Hey Lois, I don’t think anyone will hold it against you to be stressed about a worldwide pandemic. I’m in the UK where we’ve had such dire leadership it’s ludicrous. Came out yesterday they were reacting to data for another disease that doesn’t have a high mortality rate, I don’t believe that for a second. So I can totally relate to your situation in the Netherlands. My hubby works in Oncology and we’re both high risk. He’s tested negative. I work from home anyway so I was self isolating. But I have it right now. Even with hospital taught hygiene I caught it, no idea where from that’s what’s really bothering me at the moment. I was seriously ill last week, losing my breath doing five steps and basic tasks. Had the flu jab so know it wasn’t flu. I still have a very tight chest and off and on symptoms, but I think I’m on the mend. Just have to rein in my enthusiasm! It’s a very dangerous virus in that it’s more like a cold than a flu virus so it’s more likely to mutate and reinfect people, which it has done in Japan and China. The problem we have here is the people with it aren’t being tested. So the rates of infection aren’t being realistically tracked. Far more of an issue when you have slow governments. Stay safe everyone!! I weirdly have become more mindful of those that I’m connected with, even via social media and Patreon. Work on a course with over 1000 people and it dashed through my head how many will catch it and potentially we may lose. That really bothers me to my core. Btw I’m really missing human contact and touch. Hubby and I instigated separation and you don’t realise how much you need a cuddle or just a hand held!

Loish
>>33774901

oh wow, so sorry to hear that you have it!! i hope you get better soon. I'm glad that the symptoms have been manageable for you (they sound bad but you haven't been hospitalized so that's a plus)! soon you'll be better and then you can hug again <3

Loish
>>33774901

(oops, pressed enter too soon!) it doesn't surprise me to hear that you still caught it even with perfect hygiene. I think that this virus spreads much differently than has been stated by official health organizations. I've heard a lot of things about asymptomatic spread and the virus's ability to live outside of the human body. I believe these are being severely underestimated. so I'm self-isolating as much as possible because I don't want to take any risks - not just to avoid catching it but also to avoid unknowingly being a carrier and spreading it around. the herd immunity stuff is just bizarre and so reckless. our prime minister has also stated that he wants to build herd immunity, but to me it's just a weak excuse to delay the moment of lockdown. he is prioritizing economy over human lives. boris johnson seems to be doing the same. i truly believe that it will be a strategy that falls on the wrong side of history. anyway, get well soon! i hope you feel better quickly and that somehow, this insanity passes as quickly as possible.

Anonymous

Hi Lois, I live in London and and I am living your same stress now! People in the streets seem unaware on what is hitting them. I find it hard to think of anything else...Stay safe! <3

Loish
>>33754214

oh my god, so sorry to hear that. experiencing a layoff right now is just the most awful timing. are they going to do something to freeze the rents for a bit so no evictions take place? best of luck to you and hang in there <3

Loish
>>33761405

what a bummer about bernie. hopefully these events will open some people's eyes, as some kind of silver lining. it's so clear that the health care system just isn't built for these kinds of disasters and something needs to change. universal basic income would help so much right now. it's an eye opener for sure. best of luck to you!

Anonymous

I live in Kissimmee, FL with just a ten minute drive away from Disney World. I got a really bad feeling about the whole situation knowing that I live in a place thousands of people come daily to go on vacation. My county just announced we’re in an emergency situation as there have been dozens of cases discovered within the past week. So we’re going to do the best we can to stay put. I’ll be working on my own art and I’ll be keeping an eye on your work to come, you have no idea how much your art has inspired me and kept me motivated. Thanks for all you do! I’m also sorry to hear you had to cancel your trip over here, I hope things settle down sooner than later!

Loish
>>33779751

i hope so too! i was shocked that disney world stayed open so long, happy to hear they finally closed. good luck in the coming weeks!!

Loish
>>33778298

i was in london two weeks ago! it's been 2 weeks and 2 days since i got back so i don't think i caught anything there - but i was so paranoid the whole time and had a really hard time enjoying myself! big cities are so scary in times like this. you stay safe too!

Anonymous
>>33754214

Not sure yet, nothing has happened where I am yet. :/ Can’t wait for the world to return to “normal”. Got an art commission this week, so that’s a plus :)

Anonymous

I'm in Italy and I've the flu, not 100% sure is the virus but I'm in quarantine. Can't stay at my pc for drawing because the (extra) headache and the nausea are very annoying. But I keep going! At least the people singing outside keep me up <3

Anonymous

These past few weeks have been incredibly rough, but with the government help for ZZPers and the more extreme measures I'm finally starting to feel like things may be alright with enough time! I just started as a freelancer last year and since I'm really reliant on conventions for my income I've been incredibly stressed about all the cancellations :( People have really come together to try and support creatives who have been hit by this, however, and that's been incredibly heartwarming!

Loish
>>33876930

i feel you, lots of people in this industry are dependent on events to make a living. I also get a lot of my income from events (but have been able to fill up the gaps with concept art work, fortunately). it's more than reasonable that they are introducing measures to support ZZPers. I hope you get the help you need!!

Anonymous

Stay safe Loish! Here on the US the authorities are doing a very poor job: about 6 weeks ago, a woman from my NEIGHBORHOOD was not only confirmed to have the virus bit she actually DIED of it, and only on Monday we started the lock down! Stay away from us! California and NY are the worst places here. We need to understand that it is lock down time, not gathering time at home. Stay safe everyone!

Anonymous

Yes, economy will suffer, a lot, but unfortunately this is how it is. If we take lockdown and prevention seriously, it wil go away faster. If not, we will have more deaths and then more lockdown

Anonymous

My country star the lockdown a little late, after they confirmed 3 cases then few days later they decide to make a lockdown, for the moment we only have 21 cases now and one dead, wich is sad she was from Italy. I hope this end so we don’t have more love ones dying. This had been hard financially but I’m still ok!!. Stay safe!!!

Loish
>>33993995

we still don't really have a full lockdown and we have a lot of cases. hopefully more strict rules will happen this week

Anonymous

Yes, It's been so sad and so upsetting. Happy to find your patreon pg. I want to get your books but moving around so much packing and unpacking books is exhausting! I'm always leaving books and reordering them. Ok, so my nets been slower a bit too and I suppose it's cuz more people are on. I'm looking around here for some video tutorials not sped up. Maybe you could post a few! I pray you will stay well and healthy and keep drawing and painting as you are such an encouragement. I'm thinking my buddy ol pal Caricature Artist friend might like your patreon page for her birthday in a couple days, on April second..lol. Anyway, soon to be on a faster internet and might find more stuff here. Thank you! The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases! Keep painting and drawing!!

Loish
>>34434525

thanks so much for the kind words and the support! i will think about doing a real-time tutorial

Anonymous

We've been under stay-at-home orders since March and it's gotten very difficult. I'm usually a pretty introverted person, but I feel like I'm starting to crack. I miss seeing my friends and coworkers. And hugs -- I miss hugs. :( One positive thing that's come out of this pandemic is that I've been able to focus on my art again between work and family responsibilities -- and I've also been able to become a patron of yours, which I'm really excited about. :)

Loish
>>36574353

yeah i'm definitely at the same place. i feel creatively motivated but my mental health is at the worst point it's been in years. i'm really losing it. gotta start going out more somehow. thanks so much for the support!