Jo O'Brien

so tempting but ‘global economic crisis’ never sounded so real. My account’s been at $0 for… well… too damn long.
I really like what you’re doing though. It’s a rare gesture these days and one that is needed. My art is often shared… wait a minute… maybe if I didn’t share I’d sell more and have more MONEY!!!
man… I got to talk to my business adviser.
one day this summer I’ll pay full price.

Oh…I know how you feel…ebay for selling stuff I don’t need to help buy bread and milk!!

My hubby was made redundant a little over a week ago so the financial crisis has certainly hit home. I am working on a written piece about the topic, not from a personal point of view but from what we have seen as we have been going through the processes. What they say on the news is not what is really happening. It’s much harder to get help/advice that we could have imagined. The sad part is that there are so many middle aged men who have done the right thing and paid tax their entire working lives and then when it’s their turn to need help, there’s non available. To see their faces broke my heart. So even though my life is in chaos right now, I know there are many more who are much worse than us. So for now, i don’t buy takeaway coffee. Good luck with your sale Jo :-)

I’m probably the most broke of everyone here. Really really.

I’ve seen all this before in the early 90s. This time is gonna be a lot worse. We are lagging behind the US at the moment, but the tidal wave is coming.

Broke well now there is a word I know too well :( my shifts at work have been cut I am lucky to get one shift a fortnight now. Hubby is having trouble getting his pay from work as well, 3 kids eat all the food the rent and bills take the rest of the pay.

Yep, made redundant last week, and already hitting home with kids favourite saying…”Can you buy that for me I really need (want) it”.. I have the famous 6 word answer “Well save up for it then”. Apparently I am now officially really mean… :D
Good luck with the sale Jo!

I dare say we’re as broke as anyone – the “crisis has caused so many people to pull in their belts that our business is almost at a standstill, and others are taking far too long to pay their accounts. We’ve been living below the poverty line for over two years now, but, it’s getting much worse.

awwww – when i saw my name i blushed. maybe one day i’ll come home to a jo o’brien amongst my lot! if it makes you feel any better i feel the same as you re the finances but still manage to feel grateful for lots of other stuff too. thank goodness there is art! hope you are well lovely lady. x

can’t put yours up on my wall…can’t have my jess seeing all that skin :)

awww…xxx
yes, broke to the bones at the moment unfortunately…

I guess there’d be plenty of Models available these days. Someone needs to invent a Super-Food to replace the volumes of Coffee and Red Wine I drink, so that I can eat less and save more…..well, save something. The early 80’s were tough going too….there was no building work like there is these days which is about to grow to keep up with population growth. Melbourne – watch this space.

Mark hasn’t been doing much overtime since he damaged his knee early January. Amazing how base a base wage is.

i and we, will know that red redbubble will not make any peroductions or prints without our knowledge.

Well Jo, first of all I find it a great idea that you’re sharing your artwork for free, albeit only temporarily.
On the other hand the question rises if we should give our artwork away like that? Could you imagine making a photo of some beautiful landscape (style Peter Lik) and give it away for free to a magazine so it can be published? Doing that we kill the marketplace and no art will be sold anymore because lots of people simply give it away.

Do I feel this global financial crisis? No, not really. I live in the Euro zone (1 Euro equals 1,34 USD) and as some prices went up, others went down. For example since the crisis started gasoil went down from about 1,20 Euro to 0.88 Euro per liter. I buy 50 liters every week to drive to my work. Salaries did go up a little due to complicated mechanisms called index jumps based on inflation. Prices for electricity and gas went down a little too.

Of course I’m one of the lucky ones because I do have a very good job. There is much more unemployment and I guess these people are going to have a hard time. Lottery tickets have become a booming business… even if they are only fool’s gold.

I’ve found myself worse off, but (thankfully for now) not poorly off. The currency is falling, my savings earn no money, prices are rising, and salaries have been frozen despite inflation.

However, I must ‘recommend’ the current environment for helping my ‘art’ in the sense of photographically my focus has shifted away from lusting after the latest and greatest cameras and lenses, and I’ve returned to just enjoying taking photographs.

I spent three hours in the park yesterday taking photos and it cost me absolutely nothing!

this is an outlet, at least, to have others see my works…over the course of time a few of my pieces have been sold, but nothing to even amount to buying groceries and, because the Bubble will not send you a check for anything less than a 100 I haven’t seen any profits either…
as for living in poverty I am, and some people cannot understand the difficulty it is find, not only decent work, but, something worth the effort, too, in terms of wages.
It is worse than is even reported, most small towns across the country are in dying mode, some have even become ghost towns already, and, it is spreading…pockets of unemployment even occur in the bigger cities obviously, you see more and more empty stores everywhere you go…
and, yet, while gas prices have come down, not much else has, things are way too over-priced….
and, everything costs money, just stepping into my car I see dollar signs…
few are as fortunate as someone above is, solid job and such, while those who still have jobs are walking on eggshells with cutbacks on labor going on from local
government workers on….
what is left are low end jobs…there was mention that with one janitorial position over a 1000 people applied for it….

yes groceries here in ontario canada each item is sometimes 2 dollars more than last year so it starts to add up..

The sadder fact is the jobs that are going are wanting experienced people under a certain age to be able to pay them less. I got knocked back for a job I was over qualified for but willing to settle as it was a second job, walked into the store to find they had hired a person with no experience and much younger and had a lot less wages. I understand that business’s are looking to save money but at what cost? Coles here hire young children they serve their mates and don’t scan boss has caught them out 3 times but they still do it, they lost thousands of dollars on the last expiry check due to young kids putting the older dates to the back of the shelf and the newer dates to the front. People walk out of the store as these kids are not learning how to use their machines and are quite rude to the older customers who want to chat. On the other hand look at the bigger industries, holden nearly 3 years ago now announced they were moving their contracts to China, in doing this Silcraft folded many losing their jobs and not getting another job in the same industry as they were to old, once silcraft went down so did six other business’s in the same industry one being my own. Then Ajax went down, Ford announced redundancies in geelong, then reoffered some jobs back at a casual less wage package. The jobs that are worth going for you don’t actually have a hope in hell of getting, the jobs that just keep you afloat want to hire the younger people to save more money, the jobs that are not worth going for are even harder to get.

Petrol prices here have not gone down much a few cents here and there and thats only on a couple days of the week. Rental properties are so expensive now that it makes it even harder. I am in a way glad I lost my home when I did as I would not be able to afford the repayments anymore. As of this afternoon my husband has now lost his job, so we are down to a measly wage of one shift a fortnight. On the other hand we are happy we have good health and a great little family, my children understand they cant have everything and are happy with that.

Wow that was kinda long sorry

Dang!
I just spent 300.00 bucks at RB with the free shipping offer! I cashed in some of my saved up sick days to have some fresh artwork to hang and give away!
The cards I have ordered from RB totally rock the folks I give them to….
I am watching out the window for the UPS truck with my canvas orders!!

besitos and a free bag of cheetos!
J in RI

Got made redundant last November and about time to, spent the last 25 years working around the world in countries where the pay was high and the tax low (if at all!). Was in a job that I loved to hate, could not leave because I could not find another job where I got paid so much for doing so little.

Now I am back home, I have more time for my family and old friends (god I hope I do not look that old to them) and of course my photography. Wish is I had had the balls to leave the job years ago (after I had met my wife).

Sorry Jo would love to buy some of your work but times are hard, road tax is due on my Austen Martin next month. Before you ask, I was not an international banker; they do not understand that giving and receiving support from family and friends and that includes the redbubble family is what makes us stronger and happier.

Money is not evil, it is the lust for money that is evil.

“but I keep feeling like everything in the world is expensive”

“so I have dropped the mark up on all my work to zero for a while”

I like this sort of rebellion

yes, me too !! i’m fortunate to own my own home and acreage where i can live comfortably and gather fresh eggs every day from my poultry, but i can’t believe the cost of everything these days, gasoline, taxes, insurance, phone, food, clothing, etc etc
i hope that things will get better, we have a new President in office and already within his first few months of office he signed bills and raised taxes on certain things that affect most Americans.

i am hopeful however

i love your attitude and what you have done to your pricing which is totally inspirational and immediately causes me to want to edit all my works and do something similar

thanks Jo for the inspirational journal , that’s like a breath of fresh air !! :))

The art works are a blessing and an inspiration in these hard economic times. During the great depression in the US the movie industry and Arts bloomed. That was around the 30’s imagine today with such easy access as we have to modern technology which allows us to be even closer to those things that move us.

jo
i am happy in a way to hear that is not just where i live, that things seem to be this way. waking up and finding, ..and say oh no. or not wanting to look in the mail box, in fear of what bills lye in there, to being in the grocery line with all of my items..then the shock of the total blowing my mind..and trying to figure out what i bought that was so much, and what i bought that i can give back to the cashier, to lower the price of my groceries. things have gone up in price here so much. my mother tells me “this is real life”, how everyone lives. but i cannot imagine that it was always so. i remember before i was married in the 90’s. i remember wanting things i could not buy, because they were so expensive ,but i am talking “chanel or gucci” when i was in my early years of being on my own. yes i remember that. but this grocery store incidents lately, gas,putting off so many needed things (like brakes for my car)...i never remembered life like this before as an adult. my mother says its a “shock” to me, because for so many years i never had to think of it ( i did but in a different way, my life was different and so, things were different, reality to me, was raising 3 kids, while my husband was away, i did not work, but always did charity, helped in schools, and donated my time to others, money was something that others were in need of and i was there in my own way helping, delivering meals to the elderly, doing my photography for charities, but always for others)
now, i question will i have the funds to fill my tank this week, and what else do i have left to pawn..
thank you jo. i completely agree and will be doing the same. as doing my art, i hope gives the viewer the same feeling it gives me as the artist, “being adrift ”, from what is now daily reality.
thank you jo
for you for your wonderful thoughts and idea.
sincerely
t chappel

Some of us are old enough to remember the crash of ‘86. The recession ‘we had to have’ in Australia. Thankfully this time I have an everlasting day-job, a digital camera with an infinite roll of film and Redbubble when I come home each night.

86? Wrong year! Might have started back then, but it hit hardest in early ‘92.

Moths are flying out my pockets. It’s like squeeeeeeezing a penny out of asses to make a living. It’s terrible. I’ve always kept my prices reasonable. I was going through some people’s art and I really, really like a few things but the prices on the cards was rediculous. Im not about to spend 8.00 bucks on a card. I don’t love it that much. I do appreciate all that I have but prices are getting tooooooooooo out of control.

This so called crisis has yet to hit Marquette, the largest city in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Upper Peninsula that struggled for years to bring big business from lower Michigan to here but never attracted the “right people” because we are rural and do in fact have very few big businesses here to employee people yet we continue to strive! It has yet to hit my pocket book either. Condo’s are going up left and right, lake frontage is next to gone, high end restaurants, bars and clubs full to the gills on weekends, stores can’t keep high end bottled beer in stock and out of the hands of the college kids, the malls are busy, car sales are slightly down due to no allocation of new models from your big city fat kats F’n everything up. A Yahoo real estate look-up reveals 20 whole foreclosures here as on the other hand my parents and vast majority of friends live a very influential area and they have 49,595 foreclosures. What’s my point? Stop living beyond your means! Everyone never thought that the bubble would burst and or thought the silver lining would stay shiny forever…

P.S. Please don’t move here, the snow snake problem is horrendous and the bugs are large enough to carry away emu’s, hippy wannabes, small preppy children and the dark and brooding artsy wannabe types. I’ll judge this “crisis” and economy by this years Art on The Rocks art show (booked solid for artists space so don’t even waste your time) attendance and sales (record numbers growing each year). Then maybe I’ll concur with this so called “Crisis”, rising prices and overall whining…

OH Dear…have you not heard the expression, “starving artist”?
There was a reason for the comment. LOL…I usually wind up doing photo shoots for free, and what I do that you might call “art”, is never bought, but the money is not what I did it for to begin with.
That said, I did make the most money ever, from my camera this year. So I can not complain.
:) Yes, Jess, I am quite “broke”, but I feel very free, and very happy.