Well, one thing is for sure. If you’re going to try to make a living with artwork of any form, and I am sure many of our artist, dancer and musician friends can back us up on this, you better learn to live on very little money.
Primal Aspects operated in 2010 at about an $1100 loss for the year and almost a $1300 loss for 2011. We won’t even talk about 2009. So lest you believe art is over priced and painters are just raking in the cash, by all means, give it a shot sometime. I guarantee it won’t take very long to change your perception. But we keep plugging along because this is something we are passionate about and we dream that someday it might actually become at least a self sufficient enterprise itself. But not only is self sufficient living necessary if you’re going to try to make it on an artists’ budget but life in general is tough out there and getting tougher if you have had the misfortune that many of us share of being born into a working class family rather than one in which money is never an object.
So, in addition to art, we are passionate about learning to live a self reliant life not only for the security but also the liberty it affords one. When you are not a debt slave you are free to make choices that better reflect your true values without having to compromise your integrity. Eschewing the consumer driven lifestyle crammed down our throats by the marketing arm of big business and government incorporated allows us to be who we truly are. So we like to share what we have learned along our path as well as hear from others who have their own stories to share and can teach us a thing or two. Because if you’re not learning you’re not living! I’ve always been of the prepper mindset because I know from my own life experience that the loss of a loved, a car accident, and extended hospital stay or a job loss can seriously affect your life in ways you might not be ready to deal with if you don’t think ahead. So, doing things like staying away from consumer debt, having a savings account that you don’t raid every time you want to buy that cool, gee-whiz big screen TV or whatever and keeping at least a few months of stored food on hand can help you deal with life’s bumps in the road. Think of it as insurance without having to give up your money to big insurance incorporated. It’s kind of nice to keep some for yourself!
Because of the way I grew up I have always had the habit of living within my means and keeping some back for a rainy day but it wasn’t until a few years ago when I read Dolly Freed’s Possum Living and later on discovered Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast that I really started learning new things and getting more serious about doing stuff for ourselves rather than relying on the many lines of dependence that can fail on you at any given time.
But, granted, it takes a special kind of self discipline that not all of us are gifted with. Sometimes I lean a bit too heavily on the why’s of prepping by pointing out all the bad stuff that is going on in the world or could happen but it’s in the hopes that by pointing out these things it might wake people up to the fact that living on the bleeding edge of bankruptcy is no way to live a life. If you’re one paycheck away from losing your home, car, or having to do without groceries and lights then you need to re-evaluate things. Also, growing and preserving your own food is a great idea because, believe me, if you really look into what they are putting in to the mass produced foods these days it should scare the hell out of you. Growing some vegetables is good healthy work and it gives you a great feeling of satisfaction to put something on the table that you produced with your own two hands.
Anyway, check out the new Prepper Links section that I’ve added to give people some great starting points for learning to live a more self reliant life and please chime in here or elsewhere on the site with anything you would like to add. I’m serious about the forum thing. If we can get a decent sized group of people who are thinking along the same lines we are about this and might be local but don’t have to be I wouldn’t mind adding a forum to the site where we could have several different topics relating to self reliance and maybe organize get together’s sometime. When we can pool our different skills and backgrounds together into a community we will be stronger than any of us can be individually. Having a community helps to deal with the roller coaster that is life. I don’t want to start a forum until we have the people though because if you just throw a forum up on the internet and don’t have people to help moderate it and keep things on topic it usually ends up being a haven for spammers.
