Thoughts behind the artwork...

At the time that I made this image, there was an open crusade to create feelings of anger towards those in need. There were actual shows on the almighty television depicting pan handling homeless people as phonies who live in mansions and are laughing their way to the bank every single day that they 'pretend' to be people in need. I would hear people around me discussing these things as if they were the truth. Why would such falsehoods be generated you may ask? It is simple really... if we do not beleive that there is an actual problem, we cannot be angry at those who are creating it in the first place.

In this image we see a homeless family at the end of another heart rending day of struggle seeking shelter. Depicted as wooden, featureless creatures with no real identity to those who would actually see them, these people are effectively reduced to something that we do not have to acknowledge as humans with the same needs, hopes, and dreams as the rest of us. Here in the United States, corporations create these families. Corporations that have sent decent paying blue collar jobs over seas to countries with known human rights violations have turned entire communities into mere husks of their former selves. All the while, corporate sponsored media turns these people in need into 'burdens' that the rest of us have to bear. If we are angry at the ones in need, we do not focus on how they came to be. Perception is that those in need are simply not willing to help themselves. Not only are they percieved as not willing to help themselves, but that they are expecting the rest of us 'decent' taxpayers to pay their way. While this may actually be the case every now and then, the sad truth is that there are a great many who are simply in need.

Poverty can strike unexpectedly. It can strike hard working American families just as it can strike veterans who return to a country that turns its back on them.

-John Alexander (aka SirJohn)