Monday, October 31, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Scene 3


The Occupy movement has been growing all over the country. As I mentioned in my previous post, a big development happened recently when 24-year-old Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen was critically injured by a police projectile and was hospitalized with a skull fracture during a raid on the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday. On the first hour of his new morning show Saturday, Chris Hayes talked with Director of Progressive Advocacy Group Demos, Heather McGhee and Senior Editor of The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates about how these clashes with police have only propelled the Occupy Movement further and how the movement has now gone international from England to Tahrir Square. Later in the same hour Hayes had a great talk with former New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer about how the Occupy Movement has focused the national debate to inequality and the propaganda campaign on the right to demonize the protests as anti-semitic. Later in the show Hayes also talked with U.S. News and World Report Editor in Chief, Mort Zuckerman about the dysfunctionality of the current tax system.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Mayor Jean Quan


There is more developing news regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests. Police raided the "Occupy Oakland" protestors’ camp in Oakland, California Tuesday. One of the protestors, an Iraq War Veteran, Scott Olsen was apparently hit in the head with a projectile by police. Olsen was critically injured and suffered a fractured skull as a result. Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan said during a press conference yesterday “I feel that we are all part of the 99% including the police and city workers.” It is now being reported that Quan will attend an Occupy Oakland demonstration where she is expected to address the protestors. This comes after Political Commentator, Keith Olbermann called for Quan’s resignation in an emotionally charged Special Comment on his show after news of the police raid broke. Quan was at a meeting in Washington D.C. when she authorized the Occupy Oakland raid.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Scene 2


Weeks have passed and there’s still so much to talk about regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests. The other day Freelance Writer and Photographer, John Gatta sent out this great tweet about the Occupy Wall Street Protestors: "If only they'd walk around in Colonial costumes, call prez hitler and carry rifles, police and msm would treat 'em as heroes." I thought that summed it up nicely. One of the main demands of the protestors has been tougher regulations on Wall Street. Rachel Maddow recently had this really great talk with Columnist for The Washington Post, Ezra Klein about how the current crop of Republican presidential candidates actually want to roll back regulations to before the Enron scandal. Tulane Professor, Melissa Harris-Perry had an outstanding talk recently with Author, Tom Wise about the new Occupy Wall Street development in Harlem, white privilege and the meaning of race work in a solidarity movement like Occupy Wall Street. On a much lighter note the website Funny or Die posted this hilarious parody video "Occupy Main Street." I highly recommend it for the entertainment value.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Scene 1


I’m working on a new series of illustrations about the Occupy Wall Street protests. This time I’m going to focus on all the evidence of police brutality surrounding the protests. There has been mounting evidence of the unnecessary treatment of the protestors by the NYPD and it just keeps getting weirder and weirder. The website Gawker posted an article with a video recently describing how a woman was arrested allegedly after her and a group of protestors closed their accounts at Citibank. Another video has surfaced from inside the bank which seems to further back up this claim.  San Francisco based Reporter for Mother Jones, Josh Harkinson has been in New York covering the demonstrations and he just wrote this article about how some NYPD officers are sympathetic to the cause.  Finally, Political Reporter for the Huffington Post, Jason Linkins wrote a separate article about how the protests are actually changing the media narrative. Hopefully in a positive way. I’m going to be making more illos of OWS scenes so stay tuned.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Barbara Gittings: Gone But Not Forgotten


I made this montage illustration for an article in Central Mass. Pride magazine that paid tribute to the late Barbara Gittings (1932 – 2007). Gittings was a champion of the civil rights movement for the LGBT community in the 50s, 60s and 70s. In the 70s she was instrumental in getting the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from being classified as a form of mental illness. Gittings received several honors for her tireless work as an activist for LGBT civil rights, including awards from the American Library Association and The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Shortly after her passing in 2007, a memorial service was held in honor of Gittings in Philadelphia. When the director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Matt Foreman spoke at the service, he said of her efforts for the LGBT community, "What do we owe Barbara? Everything."

Monday, October 17, 2011

City Hall Common


This is an illustration of the Worcester, Massachusetts city hall building for Central Massachusetts Pride magazine in honor of the city’s annual pride celebration moving its location. It was originally for an interior illustration with the article but my editor surprised me and decided to use it for the magazine’s cover illustration. Big ups to Editorial Director, Mike Monopoli and Art Director, Chris Miller.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Vikki and Raena


The Tenth and final day in my Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days series is mother and daughter, Vikki and Raena. Okay so I cheated a little because there’s two and technically that makes it eleven demonstrators. 

For a better understanding of the reasoning behind the protests I want to recommend to everyone the 2010 documentary film Inside Job narrated by Matt Damon.  The film meticulously documents the financial crisis and lays it all out in a way that anyone can understand. Inside Job won an Oscar in 2010 for Best Documentary Feature.

That concludes the series I hope everyone enjoyed it. I want to give a big thank you to everyone who sent me nice messages on twitter and thanks to some of the journalists who shared my artwork on Twitter which include Mother Jones Senior Editor, Michael Mechanic, Senior Editor at AlterNet, Joshua Holland, Deputy Managing Editor of Truthout.org, Jason Leopold, Freelance Writer, Anna Pulley, Radio Host, Sam Seder and The Week. It’s important to note that Americans have the right to peacefully protest in a lawful way and this series was not meant to promote violence or chaos of any kind in any way. 


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Tao



Now in its fourth week, the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon continues to gain momentum nationwide. There’s been much talk about the ninety nine percent verses the top one percent. Yesterday Senior Editor of Mother Jones, Dave Gilson posted this chart on who the one percent are. Last night Rachel Maddow had an interview on her show with former Congressman, Alan Grayson about the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. When Ms. Maddow asked Grayson about why he thought the protests are resonating so much with people despite the campaign on the right to demonize the protestors and erroneously portray them as scary, Grayson responded: “I think that they have their eyes open and more and more people are seeing the scales fall from their eyes as well. Because the Occupy Wall Street people are saying first that there's no accountability on Wall Street. They wrecked our economy. Years ago they took a healthy economy and they gave us 9%, 10% or more unemployment and they destroyed 20% of our national wealth in the course of just 18 months from the middle of 2007 till the end of 2008. Destroyed 20% of our national wealth accumulated over the course of two centuries. And nobody's been prosecuted for it. Nobody’s been indicted nobody’s been convicted. So first there's no accountability. The second thing is that they've created a system that is enormously unequal and the result of that is that people are struggling to find a job to pay their bills, to pay their rent, to pay their credit card bills. According to wikipedia there are only five countries in the entire planet that are more unequal than the United States in the distribution of our wealth and that’s a system that Wall Street created, that Wall Street maintains, and that Wall Street enforces. And the way that they enforce it is the third gripe. The third gripe is that Wall Street controls and dominates our political system. One party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the other party caters to Wall Street all too much. So people have got into the situation right now where they feel that the system is completely unresponsive and they're driven deeper and deeper into debt and misery.”



Monday, October 10, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Julio



Occupy Wall Street demonstrations continue to appear in New York and other cities across the country like Chicago, L.A. and Boston. Earlier in the week a sign was posted in the windows of the Chicago Board of Trade that read "We are the 1%" mocking the protestor’s stance that they are the 99 percent. The sign caused anger amongst some protestors. Yesterday Chris Hayes talked on his new morning show with Vice President Joe Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden about the financial collapse and his work with other Attorney Generals to fight corruption. 


Sunday, October 9, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Todd



The Occupy Wall Street protests still show no signs of slowing down. Yesterday Editor of The Nation, Chris Hayes spoke at length about the Occupy Wall Street protests with Naomi Klein, Author of the book “The Shock Doctrine” and Van Jones, co-founder and President of “Rebuild the Dream,” on his new morning show.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Dean



Critics of the Occupy Wall Street protests keep calling the protests undefined. For more of an explanation of the reasoning behind the protests Rachel Maddow talked last night with Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Harvard Law School and Author of the new book, “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It.” Lessig’s talks about money and politics are now being remixed with video of the Occupy Wall Street protests and his new book provides theoretical solutions to stop the corrupting influence of money in American politics.  Maddow also spoke earlier in the day with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell explaining why she believes that the Occupy Wall Street Protests being undefined is a good thing.


Friday, October 7, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Ginger



Day Five in my Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days series: Ginger.

There is so much news to talk about regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement. A video has surfaced on The Huffington Post that allegedly shows a NYC police officer striking protestors with a baton. A  New York Police Department spokesperson was asked about the incident but could not comment because they had not seen the video. President Obama acknowledged the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in his news conference yesterday morning where he said “The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.” Reporter for Mother Jones, Andy Kroll compared the occupy Wall Street protests to the ones in Wisconsin earlier this year in a new article posted yesterday entitled “From Wisconsin to Wall Street, an Economic Reckoning.” Finally, the Author, Naomi Klein spoke at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York last night. She wrote a speech which can be read on The Nation’s website here.


Thursday, October 6, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: David


Day Four in my Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days series: David. 

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams reported about the demonstrations again last night. This time mentioning how the protests are now getting support from unions and how the movement has moved beyond Wall Street and gone national. Weirdly, the mainstream media keeps describing the Occupy Wall Street movement as “undefined.”  However, as Rachel Maddow pointed out so well on her show last night the Occupy Wall Street movement’s message is clear. That “big business and the financial industry and the richest 1% of Americans have not just taken everything for themselves but they have ruined everything for the rest of the country and prevented anything from getting fixed.” More importantly, Ms. Maddow also pointed out during her talk with Pollster for Democratic polling firm Anzalone Liszt Research, Jeff Liszt that this message of a more fair tax system is mainstream according to the latest polls.


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011


In tribute to Steve Jobs. He will be missed enormously.


Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Gilberto


Day Three in my Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days series is Gilberto. The protests are showing no signs of slowing down and are gaining momentum.  Protests are now popping up in some of the major cities all across the country. Digital News Editor, Tasneem Raja and Author, Lauren Ellis at Mother Jones have compiled this map of protest hot spots.  Yesterday I saw this awesome tweet from someone named TheNewDeal on twitter: "0 Bankers Were Arrested After Purposely Crashing Our Economy. Nearly 1,000 Have Been Arrested for Speaking Up About it." On a lighter note, the hashtag #OccupySesameStreet has appeared. I highly recommend checking it out because it’s funny.


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Steven


Day Two in my Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days series: Steven. The Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is taking off. Last night NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams featured a piece on the demonstrations and later the same night Rachel Maddow featured the "people's mic" as best new thing in the world for the day on her show.


Monday, October 3, 2011

Ten Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators in Ten Days: Mike


I had so much fun making my Ten Journalists in Ten Days series that I’m going to do it again with a different and much more serious theme: the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations. For ten days, one demonstrator will be featured each day. Each demonstrator will have a dollar bill taped over their mouth which speaks to ending the silence on the offenses of oppression, corporate greed, tax breaks for millionaires, social injustice, corruption, predatory lending and classism.  I won’t be profiling any of these protesters because, apart from their likeness and first names, they remain anonymous.

Chris Hayes recently had a really in length, smart talk with his panel of guests on his new morning show which shed some light on the Occupy Wall Street protests. His show featured an outstanding interview with one of the thousands of victims of predatory lending, Dixie Mitchell. The panel talked in detail about the reasoning behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. Members of the panel included Writer for The Nation and Co-Host of Citizen Radio, Allison Kilkenny, Independent Journalist and Contributor for Alternet.org, J.A. Myerson, Contributor for CBS Sunday Morning, Nancy Giles, Michael Brendan Dougherty of “The American Conservative” Magazine, Contributor for New York Times Magazine, Rebecca Traister, Sports Writer and Contributor to The Nation, Dave Ziron and Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Robert Johnson.


So without further ado, Day One of my Ten "Occupy Wall Street" Demonstrators in Ten Days: Mike.