Heartbreak: Obama 'Hope' Artist Down on Hopenchange

I guess our transformation into a socialist utopia just can't happen fast enough for Mr. Fairey.

In creating his now iconic Obama "Hope" poster, Shepard Fairey went from being a cult street art figure to a artist synonymous with Barack Obama’s revolutionary 2008 presidential campaign.

But the artist, whose stylized portrait was emblematic of change, said he hasn't been wowed by Obama's performance in the White House thus far.

“Obama is to me a quality human being and someone that, given the limitations of the two-party system, that’s trying to do a good job,” Fairey told Niteside at a book signing at the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday.

“But I have to grade the whole thing on a curve because the two-party system to me is not yielding the results I want to see.”

I guess he prefers a dictatorship.

“I’m very proud of the Obama poster … because it’s an image that showed that someone outside of mainstream politics, outside of corporate lobbyists could do something that affected what’s going on in politics,” Fairey said. “I think what really is the problem with the two-party system is that it’s very difficult for people without power to make a difference unless they try very hard. But the more people that do try, the easier it gets.”

Gee, he almost sounds like he could support a grassroots movement that allows those out of power to become involved, though I doubt Comrade Fairey has anything like that in mind.

Obama's Graffiti Icon Targeted by Anti-ACORN Graffiti

Suddenly the left finds themselves offended by graffiti. When this clown came up with the Obama Hope poster it was all cool and edgy. Now when some wild-eyed radical right-wingers have a little fun at his expense, well, such dissent just cannot be tolerated!

So much for HOPE. That, at least, is the symbolic message sent by an anti-ACORN activist or group that targeted Studio Number One in Los Angeles, the commercial design studio of Obama HOPE poster creator Shepard Fairey, with anti-ACORN graffiti.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has drawn conservative wrath this month after hidden-camera videographers taped its workers giving housing and other advice to a couple purporting to be a pimp and a prostitute. The White House quickly backed away from the group in the wake of the video sting, first published on new conservative Web site BigGovernment.com, with the House on Thursday voting to cut federal funding for the group.

The anonymous anti-ACORN activist or activists tried to link the anti-poverty group to the man who helped create the iconic image of the Obama campaign by targeting his studio with an image of the ACORN logo beneath the words "ACORN Funded Prostitution Zone."

Studio Number One does not receive any funds from the government, according to a spokesman, and does no work for ACORN.

"While we support free expression, it is ironic that...the conservatives and right-wingers who called pro-Obama art propaganda and if it was posted publicly, they called it vandalism, are now vandalizing private property in their campaign against ACORN," said Jay Strell, a spokesman for Studio Number One and Fairey. The graffiti has been removed, he added.

Strell obviously doesn't understand satire and irony.

Rolling Stone Deifies Dear Leader

Gee, I can't wait until this hits the newsstands.

Not.

This cover, to be released Friday, comes from the same idiot who gave us the silly Hope posters during the 2008 campaign. Rolling Stone apparently doesn't understand the word overkill. As an added bonus we'll be provided with the keen insights of the fake Republican David Rodham Gergen, the psychotic Paul Krugman and the human blimp, Michael Moore. Should be some fascinating reading.

Artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic HOPE campaign poster of Barack Obama was a global sensation, is back with a new image that both questions and deifies the President.

Appearing on the cover of the Aug. 20 Rolling Stone, the portrait depicts Obama with a brow knit in determination, surrounded by a halo of stars.

"Will he take bold action or compromise too easily?" asks a headline enshrining the President's head.

Fairey said it wasn't meant to be a halo. Rather, the picture he worked from showed Obama standing in front of the presidential seal, he said.

No, wasn't meant to be a halo. I'm sure all those halo images are just sheer coincidence.

This would be a more appropriate cover signifying Obama's accomplishments.

Obama Fairey Busted

Who could ever have imagined an Obama cult member having a criminal record? Maybe it's a tax problem.

Shepard Fairey, the controversial street artist riding a roller coaster of publicity with his red, white, and blue posters of President Barack Obama, was arrested last night on his way to DJ an event kicking off his exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Fairey, a 38-year-old known for his countercultural style, was arrested on two outstanding warrants and was being held at a police station, according to a police official with knowledge of the arrest who requested anonymity.

Police could not describe the nature of the outstanding warrants last night, but said they were based in Massachusetts.

Fairey has been arrested at least 14 times, he has told the Globe.

The artist was arrested at about 9:15 p.m. as he was about to enter a sold-out dance event at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Northern Avenue, known as "Experiment Night." The event is geared toward a younger-age crowd, with techno-style music, and more than 750 people were waiting for him, some of whom had bought tickets for the event on Craigslist for as much as $500.

Fairey was supposed to appear as a guest DJ for the kickoff of his exhibit, Supply and Demand, which will run through Aug. 16. He was scheduled to go on stage at about 10:30 p.m., and an hour later organizers reported to the crowd that he was arrested.

"We're very disappointed," said Paul Bessire, deputy director of the Institute of Contemporary Art.

"Shepard Fairey is a wonderful artist who created some positive work and we were very pleased to present his work here and around the city. We feel he is an influential artist."

Fairey, a street artist, graphic designer, and political activist, is best known for his "Obey Giant" campaign of stickers, stencils, and posters in the early 1990s.

Most recently, he has achieved fame with the red, white, and blue posters of Obama, emblazoned with the words "Hope," "Progress," and "Change."

H/T Hot Air.