Posted by Walt Bennett on February 18, 2011 at 2:33pm
Sometimes things just happen and your left with no way to commit to shows when they want money six months out. My wife and I have two different mediums and both of us have a reasonable amount of inventory - not great, but workable. Day after Christmas, we found water leaking through the ceiling in our kitchen pantry. This became a completely unbudgeted total bathroom renovation (that means I'm doing most of it!). Just before Christmas, my wife began experiencing hip pains that have become bad enough so she's having to use a cane. After three of our HMO doctors and two physical therapists, someone finally told her her hip has deteriorated to bone on bone and se needs a replacement. Only problem with this is that she's got to see their hip guru and that won't be until March 10th. Who knows when the surgery can take place. We know how long rehab will be, but I'd just love to get my hands on a few of those politicians who claim we've got the best health care system in the world! Anyway, we're left in limbo and not able to schedule much of anything save for a few local shows. So much for our frustrations. Has anyone been able to figure out how to deal with 'stuff' like this any better? Other than just sinking money into fees and hoping you'll be able to go or taking the loss if you can't, are there any other ideas?
I've held off applying to anything so far as our HMO has been giving my wife the run around. This Thursday she's seeing the third ortho surgeon (who supposedly ONLY does hip replacements!) and maybe we'll get a date. Problem is that now the original cause of everything, her left knee, has deteriorated almost as badly as her hip. She damaged the knee in high school and never had anything done to it. Compensating for it led to the hip and now the hip is getting back at that knee! Since she's 56, we expect they'll stall even more about doing a knee replacement (too young), but that means she can hardly walk - even with a new hip. This is going to be an interesting year!
Let me say, first, that i am more or less ok at this point, however, last June 24 (2010) i had a heart attack. I was packing for Omaha event at the time. I was paid and scheduled for Omaha, Plymouth, MI (PLYMOUTH ART IN THE PARK ) in July and also one of Connie's shows (Port Huron, MI). Needless to say, I did not get to any of them. I still have not been able to schedule anything. Connie was great in refunding, as was Omaha (All great people to deal with). Now we get to the promoters of PLYMOUTH ART IN THE PARK, Plymouth, MI, show in July; ABSOLOUTELY NO REFUND, they said, under any circumstances, "we don't care if you were in heart surgery at the time". Five Hundred and Fifty ($550.00) Dollars paid and ABSOLOUTELY NO REFUND. Is this any way to treat an artist? Do they think I planned to be hospitalized? I collapsed loading my vehicle to head to these events. I am currently not booking anything, because I still do not know how I will feel in the fall.
CERF is a great idea, but check your catagory to see if you're "acceptable". I've donated to CERF, but when I needed help I found they don't help photographers!
Thanks for the CERF suggestions. We're OK on medical costs as this is my wife's last year as a special ed. teacher and she's got an HMO (IF we can ever get them to do anything!). Even after retiring, she'll still have coverage. The show expense part is what could be a killer. The latest is March 10th for her next visit to yet another ortho. surgeon. We're hoping this will give us some dates.
I am with Patricia - go to CERF's website and craftemergency.org . They can help. I don't know if they can cover health costs, help you get reimbursed on shows, help you with damage to your home... Regardless they help people in your situation all the time - great organization and have talked to several members when I attended the CODA conferences in the past. Question on household issues though - can't your homeowners insurance help you with that? Michelle
When I had open heart surgery two years ago I was able to work with a few promoters who were willing to save me a space pending my ability to travel and allowed me to pay them close to the show. I was able to do some shows, not all. But there are some really nice promoters out there. Explain the situation. Some of them might just work with you.
Comments