F is for Future

My horoscope for this week:

You will be inundated with strong vibrations this week. Mercury enters Pisces on Monday. Your imagination will soar. You will be able to visualize a new future. Mars enters your sector of self on Tuesday. You will consider revamping your appearance. Your new style will dazzle the world. Be realistic about a situation on Friday. You may decide to save a companion from bad habits. You aren't a miracle worker. You will have a bit of good luck on Sunday.

So I decided to add F to alphabet today.

O is for Overcoming

Mom read me my horoscope to: Today is a 9. The full moon shines on your career path, opening new doors to productivity. Jump over whatever walls get in the way and let others follow. So I added this to my Alphabet collection, "O is for overcoming Obstacles"

 

Busy with Brantlers

I made a little series using turquoise as main color. This is a birthday present for someone special ... hence the one this one with birthday candles ;)

Don't they look great as a set? See more at Brantlers, but I am still working on the website. For some reason I have loads of energy today. Working on about 20 things at once!

Just working updating for an ad for a client and ran across this great shape in my files.

Remember these shapes I had made from parentheses?

Puget Sound Bird Fest

Puget Sound area artists are invited to submit original artwork representative of Puget Sound birdlife to be used on the 2011 Puget Sound Bird Fest poster for promotion of the event taking place September 9-11. The poster format is 11” X 17”. A $200 prize, sponsored by Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation, will be awarded to the winner.

Of course, I used vector art, recreated the bird in illustrator and that might not be acceptable in this competition. If I have time, I might try and paint something to submit.

I got a little obsessed yesterday having fun with an idea for a Bird Fest poster. Apologies to the calligraphy artist of the past! Karen at The Graphics Fairy has some lovely flourish examples on her Spencerian Saturday.

Here is my mock-up of the poster. That was fun! No back to real work.

C is for Career

Just one for for today!

R is for retooling

Continuing my alphabet project. R is for retooling your resume, in other words, removing all dates to identify you as over 50.

My lighter side

Remember The Light Side popped up in my email today. Daily Om always seems to be following my thoughts. When someone asked me yesterday, what was your last illustration, well, I had to think. I have been spending most of my time on Wordpress, CSS, Word docs, making patterns, wallpapers but not doing illustrations. So I finished up two I had started months ago. Also finished up some illustrations for Rick.

I haven't completely lost of my sense of humor. I see little illustrations about unemployment in my head all the time. Ridiculous situations. Like when you send a resume/application off in email it might as well be flying to the moon. I have been reading unemployment boards, ridiculous job ad postings threads and making list for a new adventure. With a couple of my illustrator friends, we are making the ABC's of "Unemployed over 50". Can you see sympathy cards for the newly unemployed? E-cards? Anyway, it is just something I have kicking around in my brain. Here is our beginning list, can you think of any better examples?

A if for …
Application to the moon (someone throwing a paper airplane application to the moon and having it circle around forever)
Age group
Anti-depressants
Ageless (yeah, don’t we wish!)

B is for
Boss
Benefits we no longer have

C is for
Career counseling
Colleagues we miss
Careers we no longer have
Competition

D is for
Discrimination
Never mentioning your “years” on a resume
De je vous (this has happened before)
Down-sizing

E is for
Earning power
Economic collapse
Unemployment extensions
Extensions (unemployment benefits, not hair)
Entrepreneurs

F is for
Over fifty
Future (what does it look like) (I like future. Chris)
Filing for benefits every week

G is for
Gender
Ghost (being invisible in the work force as an older worker)
Gray hair (does she or doesn’t she, a big discussion about dying your hair when applying for jobs)
Group interviews

H is for
Honor
Honing your resume until you can’t even understand it yourself!

I is for
Income
India (jobs going to)
Indeed.com
Interviews

J is for
Jobless
Jolted by joblessness

K is for
401 (K)
Kicked to the curb

L is for
Labor department (Un-labor department)
Labor force under 40
LinkedIn

M is for
Managers
Managing to do with less

N is for
Negative
Networking

O is for
Over fifty
Applying for benefits online
Online applications for jobs and benefits
Openings (but not enough of them)

P is for
Pushed out due to age
Pink slip
Passion (as in “follow your…”)

Q is for
I Quit
Quiet (as in the resounding silence that follows most applications)

R is for
Recession
Resume (honing your resume with fancy words until no one can really read it)
Reinvention

S is for
Sanity
Statistics
Skill set
Social networking
Scared
School (going back to learn new skills)

T is for
Target
Being targeted
Talented

U is for
Unemployment benefits
Underemployed
Uncle Sam

V is for
Valued (or wishing we were)

W is for
Work
WorkSource
Weary
Wages
Worried

X is for
X marks the spot

Y is for
You’re fired (as in Donald)

Z is for
Zero


From Ben, co-illustrator ;), poet, artist-extraordinaire.

A

is for Applications, they lead to dead ends.

B

is for Bernanke, printing trillions for friends.

C

is for Cashless; we now do without.

D

is for Debt; its paying in doubt.

E

is for Earning, once hard did I work.

F

is for Failing, at home I now lurk.

G

is for Games we're all forced to play.

H

is for HR departments, giving us no time of day.

I

is for Interview, in which egos are crushed.

J

is our Joint account; down the toilet it's flushed.

K

is what my 401 no longer has.

L

is for Losing; blues replace jazz.

M

is for Mellifluous, I just like the word.

N

is for NO JOB, in the punch bowl a turd.

O

is for Owing, the bills never end.

P

is for Pissing, my last dollars into the wind.

Q

is for Querulous, we moan and we groan.

R

is for Real estate for which banks will not loan.

S

is for Sycophants, their bosses' butts tasted.

T

is for Talent, now mostly wasted.

U

is for Unemployed, in the wind we are twisted.

V

is for Verisimilitude, on our resumés listed.

W

is for for Worrying about aging and tumors.

X

is for X-gens, who look down on us boomers.

Y

is for Youth that's no longer mine.

Z

is for Zed; it's the end of the line.