Hello, this post is intended for those who have commissioned something from the artists ScarDraw and Loxori. If you haven't commissioned anything, you can skip this post. I'll start from the beginning.
Four years ago, the war in Ukraine began. Even though I lived in Russia, I felt terrible stress right from the start because it felt like a currency devaluation (like the one in 1998) or a nuclear strike could happen at any moment. I wanted to run away from the collapsing aggressor country to a place where a nuclear strike wouldn't reach me. I chose Almaty, Kazakhstan, the most southeastern point of the country, not counting villages without civilization. Perhaps if I had chosen a different city, I wouldn't be here. But it definitely became my mistake in terms of paying for food and services. However, more on that later.
I took my friend ScarDraw with me, and we moved to Almaty together. A year later, my other friend Loxori came to us from Poland (she is originally a refugee from Ukraine). Now you are probably wondering why I'm telling you this and what it has to do with the clients of these two artists. Actually, this will help outline the problem.
Over the past two years, the prices for rent, food, medicine, clothes, and basically everything that exists here have risen dramatically. Living here has become almost impossible, which is why both of them had to take quite a lot of art debts, such as commissions, YCHs, and bonuses for adopts. I've outlined the situation because I'm sure there will be people who write, "just move to another city," and I will say I WOULD LOVE TO, but right now our hands are tied because we are entirely dependent on people who live in Almaty, as only thanks to them can we stay in the country. (I won't go into details because I don't want to have problems later). Only after obtaining citizenship will we finally be able to do what we want, but for that, we need to stay in the country for 5 years without leaving. For certain reasons, we had to leave recently, so the timer has reset. So for now, we are hostages to this greedy city with huge prices, and I hope you understand now why moving is not an option.
BUT! Everything was more or less under control until the last few months. Loxori's company fired all foreigners, including her, and absolute hell began. For several months, she consulted with lawyers, traveled to another city, prepared documents, went to the migration office almost every day, and even got married - all just to stay here. Because of all this, she had almost no time left, and her amount of art debts piled up heavily and has now reached 25.
At the same time, ScarDraw and I accidentally overstayed our allowed time in the country by 10 days and were forced to pay $1000 each. Unlike me, she didn't have that kind of money, and I didn't have enough to lend her, so she had to take a lot of rush commissions out of turn to cover the expenses. Right now, she has 21 art debts. Also, over the past year, her hand arthritis has flared up, and it's very hard for her to draw a lot. She wants to see a doctor soon, but unfortunately, she won't have the money for treatment.
Over the last few months, ScarDraw and I have also spent huge amounts of money on treating our rats; many of them got sick and died despite all our attempts to save them (they were adopted 2-3 years ago, so massive illnesses and deaths started all at once). We only have 2 left. Just... google the prices for an MRI for a rat. It's insane.
I understand this sounds like an excuse, but a majority of this is force majeure. Not laziness, not a disregard for clients. Just a continuous streak of bad luck. I perfectly understand that you are just people, clients who want to see their art, not philanthropists, and you shouldn't have to care about the circumstances; you bought a picture to see it within a reasonable timeframe. But I also really want to ask you to try and understand our situation.
The life of a migrant sucks. Everyone who lives in the USA understands perfectly right now just how much. You know what ICE does. But something similar started here. Recently, Loxori and I were taken to a police station and held overnight because we didn't have our passports on us when we walked 50 meters from our house. We could have easily gone home and shown the passports, but they just wanted to bully us. Migrants are people who are hated and despised. Life is very hard for us.
I won't lie, I'll tell it like it is: the process of completing the artwork could drag on for months. Although ScarDraw plans to finish all the works in her to-do list in 2 months, and Loxori in 4, no one can guarantee that some new misfortunes won't prevent us from doing so. Right now, Loxori sleeps once every 2 days, and ScarDraw is breaking her joints to draw as much as possible. They are destroying their health and themselves to draw for you as quickly as possible.
All we need is a little patience, support and understanding.
For the sake of the universe, for the love of God, I am begging you to show some mercy. Every one of you is guaranteed to receive your work. Alas, not in the most reasonable timeframe, but you will get it. And when they free themselves from this burden, they will finally be able to work on a "take a commission - deliver it right away" system so that everyone is happy. But right now, they need time and patience.
If you constantly poke them, it won't speed up the process; it will only make them feel more stressed. I swear, I am not hiding WIPs from you in a closet; when I'm not sending them it's because I truly don't have anything yet. I promise, as soon as I get something, I will definitely send it to you.
Right now, they are entirely focused on your commissions/ychs/bonuses, but they will occasionally make adopts because they also need to buy food, pet food, medicine, and pay the (absolutely unreasonably huge) rent. I'm really trying to help, but I've already lent them about $1,300, I can't handle it anymore, I have huge expenses too, plus pills because I suffer from bipolar disorder.
I thank everyone who is waiting and even continues to commission despite the long wait times.
Thank you for your time.
And thank you to everyone who shows understanding.
I am attaching the Trello board so you can see the scale of the work.

ScarDraw: https://trello.com/b/hc4rotg9/scardraw
Loxori: https://trello.com/b/RsYQnWX7/loxori