By request, and also because things are pretty tight right now, here is a general update on who I am and where things are.
My name is Larime Taylor, and I'm a disabled artist living in Southern California with my disabled, Canadian wife, and our somewhat disabled live in care provider. I live on $800 a month from Social Security and pool that with my care provider's paychecks for taking care of me in order to get by. As my wife is Canadian and because of paperwork issues does not qualify for benefits, the care provider is only paid to take care of me, and I receive no additional income or benefits for my wife. We have a very understanding and generous landlord that despite watching Fox News and being fairly Republican is one of the coolest people I know - I easily owe him about a year's rent from missing months here and there over the past three years and he simply has me pay him off as I can. We just don't talk politics very much!
In addition to our meager income, I do portraiture and caricatures with my mouth on a Wacom tablet that the company donated to me. Some months are pretty good, others not so much, and I'm having a hard time getting a hold of my web host to get a new site put in that a friend of mine wants to do so I can better promote my art and try to make more money. Anyway, that's a little bit about me.
About a year ago, the state of California erroneously dropped me from Medicaid, which pays for my care provider, which completely hosed us for several months while I wrestled with them to get put back on the system and get my provider's back pay. In the meantime, I was taking donations and doing art in a series of diaries here call the Will Draw For Food. Because of the generosity of the people here, I was able to keep utilities on and feed the family while going several months with only my Social Security to get us by. Living in California and supporting three people on $800 a month is pretty much impossible. Eventually, I was able to work everything out and things went back to normal.
This year, they did it again.
I got it fixed a lot faster this time, but we're still waiting on checks and trying to get by in the meantime. To make things worse, my wife's health has taken a downward turn lately and is costing us more money when we really don't have it. Also, the bag that I use to carry my wallet around was damaged at some point and I lost some of my money just a week ago. Needless to say, things have been very fun!
Long story short, I'm humbly accepting donations again as well as commissions for art. Below you can find several samples of my work to give you an idea of what I do. Whether you're interested in commissioning some work, or simply want to send a donation, you can send me a message here or e-mail me at the address in my profile and I'll get back to you letting you know how to go about doing so. Because of my credit and income situation, I don't currently have a bank account, making things like paypal and personal checks inaccessible to me. If you contact me, I'll explain how to go about sending money or paying for art.
I always feel awkward and somewhat embarrassed writing these diaries, so I think I'll wrap it up now. Here are some samples of my art: