Today Carmella set up her paintings for the ArtWalk, Whistler's annual showcase of local artists. Art is featured in various venues around Whistler, like restaurants, bike shops, banks, and hotel lobbies.
She's being featured at the North Shore Credit Union. She didn't have to hang her art, as there were existing shelves that she was supposed to use. The bank has an area that was probably put into their new renovation with the purpose of displaying art. The finished display has a small bio, and little placards stating each painting's name, dimensions, and price. Here she is in action.
I like the business cards she's made. She took one of her old paper paintings and cut it into business card sized sections. Then, she jotted on her information in handwriting.
It's been an eventful few days for Carmella. The job market is tough at the moment, and it's been discouraging for her. She accepted a job at the kids carnival that gets set up at the base of Blackcomb Mountain in the summer. She would be working at the bouncy castle, life-sized maze, space-age spinner, and other small attractions. She would be making a lower wage than she would have liked.
Training happened on Saturday. Carmella was not 100% excited about the job for a number of reasons, but knew that it was necessary to keep a roof over her head and food on her table. Halfway through the afternoon of training, she began to feel nauseous and started shaking and trembling. She was sweating, and had a feeling that she was about to black out. Her stomach suddenly became upset as well.
Carmella was experiencing a panic attack, and she decided that the job wasn't for her. Her mind was willing, but the body would not co-operate. She left the training day before it was finished, dragging herself home to bed. She spoke with the boss, and explained that the job wasn't for her.
However, she's now becoming a woman of business! She's decided to go after the kind of work she wants to do. She put an ad in the paper advertising childcare, and put the word out that she wanted to have more Conversational English students (Carmella and I currently tag-tutor a co-worker of mine for Korea, named Sunny).
Now, Carmella has secured herself almost five full days of work a week, all on her own. She has another English student, and another childcare gig. She's going to advertise English lessons in the paper next week, and will get a bunch of bites there too.
I think it's pretty great. Carmella's very satisfied because she will be able to do work she enjoys, and have variety in her week. Also, since she's not tied down to any of these jobs, she'll continue applying to positions relating to her psychology degree, and will keep working towards getting accepted into a post-degree counselling psychology program. She'll also likely be doing volunteer work for the area Woman's Shelter, doing both research and working with the women. Busy busy!
So it's pretty great, and she can teach me a thing or two about getting out there and making things happen.
