Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (OBEY) sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic super market tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, specifically his Barack Obama "HOPE" poster. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Looking at his work shows me that one day I can be a living artist and not known after my death. In todays life its very hard to show the world what you can do and Shepard made a loud noise in the media to get his work seen and publish. He is true motivator for young artist of today. He challenged the laws of copy rights and showed a way of transforming and making products that were refreshing to the eye. Todays generation is the mashup movement and in my world I called graphic design or (DiDe) yes I made that up. DiDe Digital Design movement. There was Dada now its DiDe. The world of art is moving to this mix media combined with Digital. I believe Shepard gave that opening to our generation.