Even Shepard Fairey's Losing Hope

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: National Journal

The artist whose poster of Barack Obama became a rallying image during the hope-and-change election of 2008 says he understands why so many people have lost faith.

In an exclusive interview with National Journal on Thursday, Shepard Fairey expressed his disappointment with the president -- a malaise that seems representative of many Democrats who had great expectations for Obama.

Fairey explained that when he came up with the poster in 2008, he was trying to find a single image that embodied the issues he cared most about -- promoting health care, helping labor, and curtailing lobbyists. He likened the issues to projectiles.

"Looking at Obama's standpoint on various policies, it was like, 'Why throw all these particular projectiles over the wall... when I could put all those things in one projectile that I could hurl over the wall,'" Fairey said in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. "Obama was the delivery device in theory. Now, I realize that he maybe is not the correct delivery device, and I'll just deal with those issues separately."

Read more: http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/09/shepard_fairey.php

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[xchrom]

1. so...is he under the bus? nt

[impik]

2. The only one who's under the bus is the president

But in two years he'll be out of there and all those who actually believed they were electing a Messiah and all they do is stand in there and wait for him to fix decades of damage - you will all get what you deserve: A Republican president.

Poor artist, really, i feel so sorry for him. He only became famous because of Obama. How sad.

[xchrom]

5. you can never accuse me of thinking he was a Messiah -- now you guys i really feel bad for.

:rofl:

[Hissyspit]

6. I knew who Shepard Fairey was before Obama.

This image, as well as his guerilla art tactics, made him pretty well known:



Google Images for Shepard Fairey and you will see many of his fantastic non-Obama images.

No doubt, though, that the Hope poster made him even more well-known.

[xchrom]

7. His hope poster is one of the great iconic images. Nt

[savalez]

15. I thought that was Gene Simmons!?!?

:headbang:

[frylock]

12. he only became famous because of obama..

shep has been in the public eye a hell of a lot longer than obama.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Of course he is!

He never really liked him anyway.

[vi5]

3. "I'll just deal with those issues separately..."

That's as good a summation as I can come up with. I still support the issues I support, I just realize that the way to do that is to support those issues and organizations and/or people who work to make progress on those issues. Sometimes that may be politicians, but probably more often than not they won't.

[UpInArms]

4. anyone who stands around wringing their hands - hoping - is a fool

If you want change - make it yourself - give me a dollar and I'll give you 50 cents. That's what a politician does.

Our country's problems are deeper than the surface. Part of our populace wants to be stupid - doesn't want facts to get in the way of their fantasy and believes everything that is delivered by the perfectly coifed bimbos at 5.

[SoapBox]

14. "Part of our populace wants to be stupid"....AMEN to that!

Wow...you got that right.

If you want to see stoopid, to to Yahoo and look at the comments posted
on all of their news stories.

I don't know if they are just punks or angry old folks but talk about nasty and stupid.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Meaningless...apart from showing that too many on our side wave the white flag too easily

[iandhr]

10. Thank you

[L.Torsalo]

17. Looks to me

like Obama was the first to wave the white flag.

[iandhr]

9. Change

The change the the President seeks takes a lifetime. Van Jones said it best the President volunteered to be the captain of the Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg. He is facing challenges that no President has to face EVER.


But some thought the President is the messiah and did upset that everything now is not peaches and cream.


Poking him with a stick it ok now and again. But get your asses in gear and fight like hell to make sure John Boehner. Then we can kiss any positive progress good bye.

[frylock]

13. the only people who thought obama to be the messiah are the fanbois telling people to stfu..

moreover, now that obama ia at the helm of the titanic, a radical change in direction may be in order. he needs to turn hard to port rather than continue to ram the iceberg.

[The Northerner]

16. Let's hope that his sentiment changes after the mid-term elections

[WilliamPitt]

18. Well, that tears it.

I was going to vote, be active in politics and stay engaged. But if Shepard Fairey is feeling depressed, well, what's the point in doing anything?

(facepalm)

[Bluebear]

19. Fairey never really loved him!

:cry:

[GReedDiamond]

20. That's fairly amusing...nt