A Jewish Artist Speaks Out

When I wrote this about 18 months ago I wrote it out of frustration. Since that time I have made many changes in my life and the way I think about things. While I can’t change what others do or control them, “I can” change what I do and the way I feel about things!

My goal is to educate people to the fact that those of us who design, write and/or program and choose to display or sell our services on the Internet are just like them. We are living, breathing, feeling individuals with desires, needs and wants. Like them, we are required to pay bills such as rent, food, medical insurance, etc. These are the necessities of life. We should not be made to feel these services are luxuries because we have chosen to put up shop on the web! They expect to get paid for a day’s work and so should we! Please read on…

Below is an edited version of the original article I wrote a little over 18 months ago. It was originally called: “Help A Fellow Jew!” While it was not asking for a handout, it was humiliating to write. I literally cringed every time I heard or said the title name. After awhile I edited the article and changed the title to “A Jewish Artist Speaks Out!” Unfortunately it did not help and seems to have fallen on deaf ears! I am sad that others can’t see or understand that we are “just people like them” trying to earn a living!

NOTE: The article below is written in the third person as it was not as painful to tell my story that way!

 

A Jewish Artist Speaks Out!

Roz Fruchtman is a Digital Artist living in the Bronx, New York. She is founder and designer of…

Graphics Schmaphics Exclusive Judaic Greetings Club…
Judaic eCards for “Busy” People!
http://www.GSExclusive.com

About five years ago — Quite by accident — Roz discovered she possessed a unique flare for designing and creating Judaic images that were later used for greeting cards. Learning on the fly, and sort of backwards — most go from print to web — Roz went from web to print!

She discovered, during an Internet search for Judaic images that there were little to none available on the web.

Roz felt in the minority, for the first time in her life and decided to do something about it. She wanted to make a difference while providing unique and artsy images for the Jewish Community — on-line and off. At first, like most artists starting out, Roz allowed her images to be used freely on the web for the price of a link back to her website. Her hope was to become recognized in the Jewish Community and eventually be commissioned to do paid projects. However, the reverse happened. People were more than willing to use her work freely, but were reluctant to give recognition and used her art illegally in other forms of media — including a CD which was sold for THEIR profit on the Internet.

Quite suddenly… Roz found she was designing 12-18 hours a day, which had become a full-time job. The paid projects she had hoped for never materialized and she was depleting her bank account of its retirement nestegg. Roz realized she had to generate income somehow! She was skilled and had worked all her life. She began to wonder how things had turned around so that she was working for free and using her savings for survival instead. Since she was spending so much time designing and the designs were so well received and used, she needed to find a way to be paid for her services at an affordable fee. This was the motivation for a Judaic Greeting Card Club.

A big promotion was scheduled and timed to coincide with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the time when many people had previously sent her cards back and forth across the Internet to their loved ones, friends, and colleagues wishing them a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. This did not happen, as one week before the holiday/promotion was September 11, 2001!

With this horrendous catastrophe came loss, fear and a sinking economy. Roz used this time to work through her own grief as motivation to create a 911 eCard Tribute site, however, she still needed a way to make a living, only now… there were little or no jobs available.

This was the perfect opportunity for Roz to return to her dream of providing the Jewish Community with a means of communication using her unique graphic designs! A short time later the virtual doors of Graphics Schmaphics Exclusive Judaic Greetings Club flung open to the public. While ecstatic at the idea, Roz now faced the fight of her life. All those thousands who patronized her site through the years, sending her uniquely designed Judaic cards over the Information Super Highway, across countries, continents, and states, now abandoned her in their search for the elusive FREE eCard web sites.

On the Internet, people do not seem to associate a living, breathing human being — not unlike themselves — behind the beautiful art. If they did, they would realize that people need to be paid for their work in order to survive.

What is even more astounding is that people will readily donate money to strangers who run up their charge cards beyond belief, while literally turning their back on someone who works so hard to provide them/her people with a form of communication not available anyplace else on the web. All Roz is asking is to be given a chance and be paid for her work. Think of it this way… No one would expect you to go to work 12-18 hours a day — or even one hour — and at the end of the day come home without a paycheck! “PLEASE… Help change this way of thinking by supporting those who provide the services you enjoy and make your life so much easier!”

Besides… as a member of Graphics Schmaphics Exclusive Judaic Greetings Club, Roz not only benefits, but YOU and YOUR RECIPIENTS gain by using this unique form of communication!

Thus… the idea for Roz to bare her soul and wear her heart on her virtual sleeve to you, her public! All she ever wanted was to make a difference and be paid for her skills. All she asks now — of you — is to give her service a chance. At $15.95 a year/about 5 cents a day, it’s a win/win situation!

VISIT Graphics Schmaphics Exclusive Judaic Greetings

JOIN Graphics Schmaphics Exclusive Judaic Greetings

Questions, Comments, Suggestions? Contact Roz
mailto:roz@designsbydaybreak.com