I’m not any less angry that my fear for the year, and abject terror that I may, without having voted for the idiots in power, become a victim of their evil policies, despite my own objections to them, despite my attempts to thwart them in whatever way I can, despite the ranting, the protests, the debates; that by trying to continue regardless, remaining hopeful in seemingly hopeless circumstances – I’m no less angry that the loss I’ve just filed on my tax return has been a seeming source of comfort to others. Please do not make the mistake of imagining for one minute that I have a massive income. I don’t at all. I’m as angry as The Artist Taxi Driver, but while he’s ranting about it, I’m trying to think of ways to fight back. But I have no idea how. We’re talking about a gaslighting government here.
This is what I would be doing if I was paid http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/radar/the-…
It isn’t as if I’ve been doing nothing. I’m still illustrating my graphic novel.
I have a couple of opportunities coming up that will be excellent, but that involve more expense. Namely travel.
I need to get down to Brighton. I’ve been offered free accommodation with friends to go for an event that is relative to my practice. Train tickets are beyond my budget – not paying over £100 even with a friends and family railcard!
I would gladly carshare / offer petrol money, but I don’t know anyone going down to Brighton from Lincoln that day!
I’m also planning to go down to London to speak to a gallerist and meet a photographer whose work is exhibited there next month, and attend a private view for his exhibition. It’s a weekday, which is hard for me as a single parent. Private views on school nights are patriarchal. I can go to local ones, but any elsewhere become an epic journey into Mordor just to even attend. I can’t always rely on Mum to babysit for me, she has to get time off work and then commute an hour’s drive.
I can go down for this, but I’ll have to get the train back to Lincoln that same evening or risk being stranded in London, and the cost of train tickets from Lincoln are ridiculous. At this time of the year when you’re trying to keep your costs down, it’s just not viable that they’re going up.
The odds are stacking up even more against me, and I don’t feel as though all my best efforts are paying off as much as I wish they would. I dearly wish there was an artists’ train ticket, that made it so that if I sit and draw passengers on journeys, that pays for my travel. That would be one less headache for all of us, wouldn’t it? I thought about it. if I illustrate a train ticket, that ticket is worth more than a printed one already.
