JessyLee Brinlee models a painted hat made by John "Jay" Wells, who said such a piece typically takes 12 to 15 hours of work.

Since he began selling his artwork over a decade ago, Bend visual artist John “Jay” Wells came to rely on the added income. That evaporated at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wells, this week’s Central Oregon Creative Artists Relief Effort (CO CAREs) featured artist is primarily a self-taught artist. Typically, he sells his wearable works at festivals such as the Oregon Country Fair, which was canceled in 2020.

“In years past, festivals were actually a pretty important source of income for me,” Wells said.

He mainly concentrated his resources on two Oregon festivals: the Oregon Country Fair and Faerieworlds Music and Arts Festival, “because of the logistics of hauling all of your supplies and what not, setting up a booth and getting a vendor’s license — pretty difficult if you just have a regular life aside from that,” he said.

Though Wells also sells pieces via his Etsy page, his colorfast, hand-painted hats were quite popular at festivals, where they sold well.

“It’s been a little more difficult for me to move them elsewhere,” he said. “When people really get them in their hands and look at the details, and realize, ‘Oh, this isn’t just a hat; it’s actually a painting,’ they tend to have a different reaction to it.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, “that’s all off the table now due to COVID-19.”

Likewise with his main trade working as a hotel night manager, he said. “Ever since COVID-19 hit, I’ve actually been off of work, because I have some respiratory issues that would make getting COVID-19 a real big problem for me.”

Without money coming in, it’s difficult to produce more work.

“I can only produce as much art as I can sell,” Wells said. “I don’t have a huge apartment. I can’t just pile my work up around me endlessly. And I also can’t just endlessly waste money on materials. In order to keep going, I have to sell things, which is a kind of sad and frustrating aspect of my life as an artist.”

Not long after he spoke to GO! for this article, Wells received more woeful financial news: His rent would be going up by $100 a month.

“No matter how much money an artist makes, the expenses always increase a little bit faster,” he said.

The CO CAREs grant program will help.

“When the market crashed, my art crashed with it,” Wells said. “I still practice, but I don’t produce anything anymore. That’s absolutely why a program like (CO CAREs) is so important. That could get me producing art again after such a long hiatus.”