Life Updoot

TLDR; sorry I've been quiet, I want to be more active in the community, but my pain & high cost of living make it hard to find time/energy to be active/interactive online. I am trying to find solutions to both issues, and will hopefully be able to engage more once I do. Thanks for sticking around!

Hey y'all! I haven't been very talkative lately, so I figured it might be nice to do a lil check-in & update about how things are on my end.

First of all! I really wanna be more active in the G/t, vore, & furry communities! I miss y'all, & have been feelin SO much fomo. This has been my online home, since I was 14. Half of my LIFE. I have made so many lasting meaningful connections here, & feel I can be unabashedly ME. No hiding these things about myself that make me who I am! I'm much, MUCH too big to hide. ^^;;  When I say "here", I don't mean whatever platforms I post this on. "Here" is community. Community is about the people ("people" including all forms/species) who form it. I want to be an active member these of these amazing communities! I know I will settle back into it when the time is right, but for now, just know that I'm still here, I still see you, I still love seeing all amazing the creativity & fun! I just need some time to figure out how I'm going to adjust my life for the chronic pain & poverty I have been experiencing for years now. Which I also have updates on!

For those of you who don't know, I experience chronic pain in my hands (mostly), shoulders, neck, & upper back, & have been in constant pain since I was like, 15. It's most likely genetic, but is definitely WORSENED by drawing & being on the computer all the time. Which sucks because drawing is pretty much my favorite thing to do ever??? I have to save all the hand-energy I can for work, so I also can't play vidya games or draw for fun anymore which makes me sad. ;w; My pain situation hasn't changed too drastically, but I am hopeful that I'll be able to learn HOW to take care of my body being constantly in pain. Little changes like using a work-break/stretch/hydrate app so I don't have to rely on my memory. Doing my stretches every day. changing how I sit, hold my pen, type. My aunt was SO kind & generous & got me a standing/sitting desk so that's definitely been helping my back! ^^ I don't have a diagnosis for my chronic pain yet, and I haven't found a treatment that really works for my pain. But I feel like the more things we rule out, the closer we get to figuring out the problem.

Now, the biggest contribution to my pain; poverty. I'm incredibly fortunate & grateful to be paying my rent w/my art! It was my dream since I was a teenager, to support myself w/my work, I always wished I could just draw G/t, vore, & furries as my job! I've been working so so freakin hard to maintain this dream & passion. It's very important that y'all know I adore doing commissions. <3 The best part of my job is making people happy w/my art! What I DON'T love, is that I have to do an unsustainable amount of them every month just to make sure I have a roof over my head. I've found myself trapped in a vicious cycle, particularly since rent prices & inflation exploded recently. So I take a bunch of comms, draw as much as I can (while trying to maintain the quality of my work), injure myself/cause flare-ups, have to rest until my pain is at a tolerable level, panic from missing days of work, desperately try to catch up, which pushes me past my pain threshold to injury again & restarts the cycle. I'm currently on food stamps which helps make sure I'm not ACTUALLY a starving artist. Aside from renting a little house that's falling apart in one of the most expensive cities to live in the country, w/3 other people, I also have 2 cats to feed, bills to pay, $6/gal gas to fill my cars tank, & once a month I would like to do something nice for myself like buy a $5 pack of Pokémon cards. I'm also SO thankful to have free healthcare in this state. I wouldn't be able to afford it at ALL if I didn't, & I am on several critically important medications that are covered! However, the system is SO limited, slow, & crowded, it can take months to be seen by a doctor, & some of my health issues aren't covered at all, so I just can't get them treated or healed. I wish I didn't have to hurt myself in order to afford living, & I wish I could afford better healthcare for my pain, but I can't at the moment. I really want to move out of LA, but that means I also need to have the money to afford moving (gas, uhaul rental, motels, food, etc). So! I'm working on it. I know it won't be like this forever, & I'm working on changing it for the better, instead of just waiting for it to change by itself.

I still want to be an active participant in this community. I know I'll get back in the swing of things eventually! I just need to figure out how to change my living situation to one where I feel secure & confident that I have housing & medical care. I owe SO much thanks to my clients & Patrons who keep this big ol' hungry giant goin'. <3 I am so grateful for every person who supports me, every person who commissions me, & every person who submits a commission request even if theirs doesn't get picked. I'm grateful for the community & people around me, the beautiful creativity that inspires me, for the people who like & share my art, even for the people who can't interact but are looking at & quietly appreciating/faving my art. I wouldn't be here without y'all. Thank you. <3

P.S.
IF you would like to donate to my work, any amount of money would help, & you can find my donation sites here:  

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/voraciousollie
CASHAPP: https://cash.app/$OlliesArts
SQUARE: https://square.link/u/08GomH4P
PAYPAL: Pandaroo1313@aol.com

HOWEVER!! Please do NOT donate if you are in poverty or financial crisis yourself. You need to focus on your health and wellbeing! And please do NOT feel bad if you can't or just don't want to donate, that's your money & your business. There is no pressure or expectation, just putting it up in case anyone feels like droppin' me a couple bucks & won't miss those couple bucks.