i need a free graphics program that will open on Mac. That's the limiting factor here. Please, anyone help me. I've searched google a million times..

OSX to be specific

http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

what exactly do i download from that page though? there is like fifty links

http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/

so all of the links! sorry, i'm being so dumb about this

Uh, no. If you actually read the description for each link, it's very obvious.

You need the very first link: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-app/Gimp-2.2.10-svg.dmg?download