TONYWARDSTUDIO.COM

Jobs With justice

Posted By Ed Simmons
Photos By Harvey Finkle

……….They really don’t give a damn about anyone else. They all lack empathy for the people whom they represent. Christ, the whole damn bunch of them took two summer holidays, leaving millions hungry. I went hungry, the bastards had me cut down to one meal a day. I’m down to 173 pounds and at 6′3″, I need to be somewhere near 195 to do my job in construction. Oh yea, I got a job today. Not that things are turning around out here in Los Angeles, I was just very lucky. The job situation out here is still ugly! This attitude of, I got mine, can be contagious. They split us up, the unemployed, left the 99ers behind, the American Workers who are most needy of a hand up!

Poverty Kills

In my work, if we’re not getting our job done, the entire crew is subject to being run off. Should our Congress not be held to this same standard? Now some of these slugs want to continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, the top 2%. This top 2% needs to accept some responsibility for bringing our economy down. They need to be throwing down some scratch, help our nation up out of this hole, not bury the 99ers in the ditch. Why is it in Congress, there is so much concern over Corporate America at the expense of the American Worker? All these corporations are doing fine. They all have plenty of money to hoard with manufacturing moved off shore, most of the money they make, doesn’t make its way back around into the hands of our citizens. It just pads the pockets of the privileged. Its skimmed off the top!

Union

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more, we as a Nation united need to run ALL these bums out. Put in people who will honor their oath of office, people determined to get their jobs done. Its hard for me to comprehend how a bill in Congress can run thousands of pages, yet our Constitution is only four. The only conclusion I can come to is our Government has gotten out of hand. Like a fright train rolling down a mountain side, crushing everything and everyone in its path! Our Government has been hijacked. It is no more a Government of the people, by the people, for the people. Today our Government has become an unyielding beast. I say let’s slay this beast and bring back our American Dreams! I’m sick and tired of this smoke and mirror Government, I’m fed up, the people of Bell got fed up too. The people of Bell, the first to step up, all across our Nation. Our Citizens need to follow their lead, enough is enough, they’ve all shown their stripes, We The People, need to take our power back!

Unite

Our highest court has sided with the powerful. No longer do they defend the rights of the common man. Their rulings on campaign funding spit in the face of the people their supposed to defend. Corporations are not people. We Are The People! Its ever more clear we are out here on our own, all alone! Absolute power, corrupts absolutely, the citizens in this country, need to follow the lead, set in place by the hoodwinked people of Bell! I can’t forget, I won’t forget about the 99ers plight, I will not let this go.

A Shelter Is Not A Home

Mom told me way back when; “Edmund remember always, but for the grace of God, there you go!”. I’m tired of this congressional conspiracy set on sabotaging our American Dreams! I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed, there are broken down families, families that have been broken up, living as refugees, living in tent cities, all just cast aside! We can’t let this stand. We all need to see to it, that the disenfranchised American unemployed, get theirs back. Common men and women in our nation have to motivate, to get out and vote, and on the day after November 2nd, say to all of Congress voted out of office; hey pal,”You Got Yours!”

End Poverty Now

To read more of Ed Simmon’s blogs, log on to www.yeeha.org/art

Black Spring

Posted By Bob Asman

These images are Noir.  They are common images in common places.  They are accessible in almost any small town in America. 

Motorlodge

These are real photographs on silver film and silver prints done expressively; in anger, because a bunch of kleptomaniacs on Wall Street have so much power. 

Statute In Landscape

Clothespin's

Signage

I hope the photographs convey a sense of surrealism and foreboding because as an historian of the day-type-artist, that’s what it feels like today. 

Bag Of leaves

These photographs are the Noir debris of our times.

A Living Saint

Posted By John Gialuco

……….On Monday July 5, my wife, Amy and I boarded a bus to NYC. Her meditation teacher rented a bus so a small group of us could receive a HUG from Amma, http://www.amma.org/, an extraordinary Indian Saint who has introduced the primal concept of giving people a simple hug with a unmeasurable amount of love energy to go from her to you. Amma probably gave hugs to 2000 people starting at 11 am until late into the night. The event was held at the Manhattan Center a few blocks from the royal Empire State Building which is once again the tallest building in NYC… for now. ‘Mother’ has hugged over 30 million people in the last 39 years, black, yellow, brown, white, young, old, sick and healthy. She has hugged for over 22 hours without a stop, without food or drink, an amazing feat for any human being. She makes claims to no religion, nor deity other than the Love of God, Goddess, All that Is.

After waiting around 3 hours for our turn Amy and I got in line to meet Amma. Amy was so very nervous and excited at the same time, she was even a little frightened. I am not sure what I felt since we continually had to move up towards Amma sequentially hopping from our seat to the seat in front of us and so on. As we were next in turn someone told me not to touch Amma but to grab the arm of her beautifully padded chair in which she sat all day. Someone gently took my small backpack that I had stuffed my sandals in alongside of some great Indian cookies I had bought downstairs in the make shift dining room. BTW the lunch and other Indian foods sold was some of the best tasting Indian food I’ve ever had. I was next surprisingly lifted and guided into the arms of Amma from her aides standing on either side of her. I tried to look into Amma‘s beautiful dark eyes which I had noticed earlier on the sidelines but I soon started to struggle for some air since my face was now crushed into her massive cleavage. In a moment’s time she lovingly pulled me into her and began to repeat a phrase which had a personal message but again I couldn’t quite hear her since my ears were now covered with her breasts and arms. Everything happened so slow and fast at the same time, I truly was bewildered. When I think and bring back the feelings I had at those moments I feel like crying from deep within my being. I can’t say exactly why except that I was given a gift of her energy and Darshan.

The Hugging Saint

It is an unspeakable thing to remember what we felt, what unconscious codes we were given when we were all hugged by our mothers or whoever gave us our first meaningful, loving hug in our lives. The Hug that conveyed our true sense of self hood, a knowing of unconditional love, acceptance and total safety. This is not a shock but a recognition of life, our life… for this one time in our existence we know we are eternal. But I digress.
Amy was in tears and a bit shaken as we were again helped up from Mother and gently guided to the side to then sit on the floor with others who had just received Darshan before us. From where we sat we could watch other people glide into the arms of this truly great woman who was born with the desire and choice to represent and disseminate Love through her simple, simple Hugging. For me seeing children of all ages hugged and kissed by Amma left the most touching impression.

I awoke that night at around 3 am and sat outside my patio in the 90 degree midnight heat just staring into the trees and sky, listening to the dark, knowing that for this short time all the bullshit we are inundated with day in and day out was suspended and that although we have come a long way as a species, we have never really been separated from our Source and Natures. I challenge every politician to run as fast as possible to get hugged by Amma and to remember what it is like to feel and believe in their humanity once again and to realize that we are all connected to and with each other and that we are all in this space-boat together!

Amma’s Dream

“Everyone in the world should be able to sleep without fear, at least for one night. Everyone should be able to eat to his fill, at least for one day. There should be at least one day when hospitals see no one admitted due to violence. By doing selfless service for at least one day, everyone should help the poor and needy. It is Amma’s prayer that at least this small dream be realised.” -Mata Amritanandamayi Devi.

Peace is Free, Mr. John

www.camdenchronicles.com

To read more of John Gialuco’s blog posts log on to www.camdenchronicles.com

Blackberry Self Portrait

Posted By Ed Simmons

Pride. Swallow It

That’s what its there for. I spent the morning, and some of my afternoon, standing in the welfare line. Thank you Senators, for your job well done! A lot of men like me, standing in those lines are not broken men, just angry men. I heard a lot of rude statements about illegal immigrants. Our Government got a lot of people scared of the Sewer Gators, I know illegal immigration is not our problem, we are a Nation of immigrants. What we need, what we want right now, is work! Its important to say, the people working in this welfare office, are wonderful people, they get it. They know the people they’re seeing these days, are only the effect, the cause, a dysfunctional Congress! It takes more than talk, to make something happen. Where have all those shovel ready jobs gone anyhow, its ugly out on the streets out here in LA. Not much going on, nothing much will get going on, until the banksters cut loose with some cash. Why in the hell would they, they make so much more money moving it around markets, they’re still playing both sides of the fence, for them. This is a thing of beauty, the perfect storm!

40% of this Country’s GNP is all about nothing, they aren’t producing product, they just continue the poor business practices that got us into this mess in the first place. WE THE PEOPLE, bailed them out once, don’t be fooled, all this crap is still going on! We need to clean house in this Country, I’m not talking about the immigrants. Who I’m speaking of, are the bastards, and the bastardetts, wasting space in the Congressional Hallways of Washington. I remember hearing more than once, first we’ll kill all the lawyers, we desperately need a cross section of the fabric of America, occupying the seats of Congress, people in touch with the Citizens they represent, the Common People of America, taxi cab drivers, carpenters, janitors, and cooks, our labor force and librarians, our fishermen and our farmers, people not beholden to the corporate scum! In their quest for unbridled profits, these corporations have sabotaged our once Great Nation, just think about this situation for a minute, tent cities, sprouting up, all across our Country.

I’m sure Congress would truly feel shame, if only they cleaned their Capitol Office windows. You know, this assumption I make, hinges on believing they have a conscience, with all we’ve witnessed through these troubled times, we all know they don’t! Christ, all I hear from them, is more tax cuts for the rich, I’m not the sharpest tack in the pack but I know, with the tax base eroded as it is today, any solution other than an increase in tax, is insane.

If I could just get a job, I would be more than happy paying double the tax, I know, I’d be bitching and moaning, in lock step with everyone else. However, as a result of these misdirected polices, firemen, police men, and our teachers in our communities now are loosing their jobs! These are the jobs that grow our society, the professionals that keep our communities safe! So I am going to reread the Secret again this weekend. I’m wearing out the pages in this book. I’m just a little worried the pages may turn to dust before this awful economy turns around! Here is the hope I can believe in, the November Elections are coming and all these clowns in Congress who’s seats are up for election will leave!

Artwork By Mikel Elam

Posted By Mikel Elam

I am getting sick and tired of the blatant attempt to undermine Barack Obama’s intelligence and leadership abilities. Basically he walked into a problem created by the previous administration. Everyone now expects him to solve every problem within one and a half years. I think it’s unfair and I know many will not be able to understand this next statement. Some of it is racially motivated. Probably coming from many who don’t think they are racist. It’s like the comment ,”I am not a racist, some of my best friends are black or latino etc, and yet these “friends” really aren’t so much in their lives.
The art represents Obama in a box. The box is getting smaller and smaller trying to squeeze the life out of him. People are taking shots at him. In this case it’s the splatter from paint balls.(I hope nothing worse ever happens) They take shots at him like comparing him to Hitler and calling him a communist, socialist……the list goes on.

Invisible One

So many forget he is a black and white president and he represents the face of real America in the 21st century. Not the confederate flag waving, wishing it would go back to the old days of whites getting to sit and Blacks standing in the back of the bus mentality.
Yes this country is in financial trouble. I am in financial trouble. So in fact I represent someone who should be angry with the status quo. However I recognize where the problems started and no one seems to be holding that person and their administration accountable for past actions.
Its an unfair practice. A selfish act of aggression without thought. Again this reminds me of the times when a person of color opened their mouth only to have a gun placed there to shut them up. Make them disappear.

Invisible Two

Recently I created a series of portraits .Men of color from around the world. I have entitled the series “Invisible” based somewhat on Ralph Ellison’s great novel,”The Invisible Man” who writes about living in a society where we co-exist with others who want us to stay away unless they need us for servitude.
Obama is a reminder to everyone we are not going back to the days of the settling fathers. And thankfully he is very visible.

Melissa Norbeck

Posted by Melissa Norbeck

Well, maybe we can just make a few changes. What is wrong with our country?
Quite a few things come to mind: two of them are health care and greed. The health care issue here in the US is ridiculous. Some people don¹t have problems with health care and health insurance, but many do. And so what if one man has insurance and can get his teeth cleaned every six months when the child down the street just died because she doesn¹t have health insurance or enough insurance. Why is health care the way it is? Greed, plain and simple.
The higher-ups care more about money and less about helping people. Sometimes I really feel things are so bad (war, health care, greed, violence, global warming, animal cruelty, etc… that the world just needs to end and start over.

I think it¹s amazing that we the people stand for as much as we do. Supposedly we live in a Democracy ­ NOT. We do have freedom of speech, but that can only get us so far. We do what we¹re told, and that¹s the way it is. I¹ve been saying for a long time how I feel we do not live in a Democracy, and, ironically enough, I just came across a new word: Plutonomy = an economy that is largely influenced by the wealthy; where things are divided into two parts: the wealthy and the rest of us. That is definitely America.

Pharmaceutical Research

It¹s a damn shame that people like teachers and cops -those who serve others and don¹t make much money as is- are taking pay freezes. When was the last time you heard of a CEO or someone who worked for a health insurance company or pharmaceutical company take a pay freeze?

R&D

America is the best country in the world but also the most corrupt. I wish
people worried about others not only themselves. To quote Michael Moore, I refuse to live in a country like this, and I¹m not leaving!

Zivile Pupinyte

Zivile Pupinyte, a self taught jewelry designer, was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania. Zivile Art jewelry collections are strictly hand made by Zivile Pupinyte and are one of a kind. Form, detail and different mediums are seen in her original and daring designs.

Pond Photos By Russell Underwood

Organic but not crunchy, sculptural but not weighty, asymmetrical but balanced – that is Zivile Art. It is for daring women who are not afraid to be noticed and aim for complete beauty.

The Purl Studios

‘Every piece of my work is a part of me. It is alive and will be until I am. It is wearable, live sculpture.’

Zivile Art

To learn more about Zivile Pupinyte’s work, log on to www.zivileart.com.