That seems like a very round-about way, but I understand that when money is tight, it's often necessary to go in a safe way like that. My advice is to make a lot of art on your own time. That's the best way to get good and to show that you know what you are doing. Work on indie games, do freelancing.

In fact, I'm actually starting to work on a game based on Eliezer's "The Simple Truth" article. I was planning to look for some amateur artists on DeviantArt, someone who is in the situation like you: they could use practice and exposure. If you are interested, let me know (private message), and we can try to work something out. I'm not promising anything though.