LA based graffiti artist Shepard Fairey has been creating artwork for a solid 20 years. But it wasn’t until the 2008 presidential election that he became a household name. His creation of the iconic Expressionist portrait of President Obama with the caption “Hope” raised more than half a million dollars for Obama’s election campaign and it was what renowned author Malcolm Gladwell likes to call “the tipping point” for Fairey. This portrait spread like wild fire and was found all across America, and even the world, on billboards, bumper stickers, t shirts, jackets — the list is endless.
“The image has achieved what I hoped for, times 100,” said Shepard.
Shepard also created an image with Obama smiling and the caption “Victory.”
The road to political artist wasn’t straight and narrow — Shepard has earned himself quite a rap sheet — he’s been arrested for street art multiple times. He did not approach the Obama campaign partly because of this reason. But the combination of him postering it around his home base of Los Angeles and the image becoming a force on the Internet had the Obama campaign calling him after only a few weeks – which was a smart move for the campaign for several reasons, including being able to control that the image wouldn’t be used in illegal ways.
“The reason why I did street art is because I wanted to share my art in front of an audience and the most direct way to do it, especially before the Internet, was to do find derelict spaces, abandon building, electricity boxes on corners and just put posters up,” Fairey said.
We here at Style Seen Daily often have the pleasure to rock to Fairey as he is a resident DJ in downtown LA. He believes the world of music and art are intertwined. And just like his artwork, where he just starts and follows his passion not sure what the final work will be until he is done, he djs in the same manner, feeling the crowd and changing his music to the vibe in the air. He reveals, “I love music and I feel like djing is audio graphic design.”
Shepard created the “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign in 1989, while attending Rhode Island School of Design. This evolved into the “Obey” phenomenon with Obey stickers being stuck anywhere and everywhere (legal or illegal). The Obey clothing line then followed suit.
He has also created album artwork for such artists as The Black Eyed Peas (Monkey Business) and The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgesit).
Shepard Fairey is turning out to be one of our generation’s most influential artists. And SSD looks forward to watching Shepard spread his wings even further as we believe, like Obama, he is now in the right position to turn more of his ideas into beautiful creations.
