Chrysalis Cocoon: Shepard Fairey Post The Obama Hope Poster ...

I hadn't thought of Shepard Fairey in a while, but was reminded of him after mentioning taking my daughter to see his "Supply and Demand" 2010 exhibit at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center.

I guess he's more of a graphic artist, than an artist, much like Andy Warhol was, but better?

He was big at the time, you may recall his Obama "Hope" poster?

He also had pop-up murals appearing in larger cities everywhere, including Cincinnati, particularly right before exhibit openings ...

This one was actually in Covington, Kentucky in 2010 (considered Greater Cincinnati) ...

Where has he been, what happened to him?

He's still around - except he had to pay out vandalism fines to cities like Detroit where he had painted murals without permission lol.

So ... a quick aside on the buildings of downtown Detroit, before I continue about Shepard Fairey?

My husband is from Detroit, so I've been there a few times.

Though there's a lot to do - great music, great multicultural food, and some beautiful sculptures downtown - even HE agrees that downtown Detroit is not a "pretty" city and never has been.

I mean, it's already overcast and gray much of the time there - why make it worse with THIS crap?

I mean, Zzzzzzz. No discernible trace of style or beauty whatsoever besides the one small church.

The building design is so boring, unadorned, and dreary, it's depressing - clearly focused on functionality and industry rather than any style or beauty whatsoever It looks like it gave up even before it began, as most of those buildings are pre-WW2 and older.

Maybe that's the real reason Detroit collapsed - it killed itself due to chronic drabness downtown 😂

Even the 1973 Renaissance Center building, originally owned by the Ford Company - Detroit's tallest building, initially heralded before it was built as Detroit's new icon - is anything but a renaissance building. It's essentially a standard 80s-ish glass grain silo with even less interesting buildings around it.

Ta-da!

Meh.

I mean, I love modern architecture, but there's no artistry or originality there, it's a glass grain silo lol.

I'm not sure why, but unlike most other large US cities, downtown Detroit appears to have never embraced period building styles reflecting American architectural trends, like other cities did, like Beaux Arts, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, mid-century modern, modern, or post-modern.

Making it worse, when Detroit reached its building-growth peak during the 1940s and 1950s with car production, it added insult to injury. Because it's very obvious they sacrificed style for quick functionality to accommodate the influx of auto workers.

The closest thing to making their own distinctive style are the English Tudor Revival homes that can be found in the Boston-Edison District, Sherwood Forest, Indian Village, and the still-prestigious Grosse Pointe.

These areas also have Victorian, colonial revival, prairie-style and Arts and Craft historic homes, as well, like other metro-area historical homes, with some of them being a mix of these with Tudor Revival.

And in the Boston-Edison Historic district, you could still buy some of these for $150K to $400K just 10 years ago, right after the recession ...

There are also some cute little mini cottage versions of these English Tudor Revivals, even in economically deprived areas. Sadly, many of them have been abandoned or boarded up.

But otherwise?

Detroit homes after the 1940s were ugly boxes to house laborers without adornment ...

Oooh, sign me up!

(j/k)

They scream "Let's just get this sh*t up fast for the influx of auto workers to live in post-war" 😂

(It amazes me that these tiny 800-ft square boxes with 1 bathroom are actually among the most expensive in the metro Detroit area and sell for $500K in areas like Royal Oak or Birmingham, just because they're considered safe, trendy areas.)

Nope, no thank you.

Give me a little Arts and Crafts Bungalow or one of those little Tudor Revival cottages in a less trendy location any day, and if not, then I'd have to settle for the suburbs, because nope, not paying that much for garbage, just because it's trendy, sorry. (And let's not ignore the fact that these areas also try to avoid people of color and price them out of things.)

Thus, back to my point - when Shepard Fairy paints THIS mural on a wall there, you notice - and it's a vast improvement, not only to its dreary landscape, but to what's usually painted on the walls of buildings in Detroit 😂

Also, if I owned a building, and Shepard Fairey painted a popup mural on it overnight?

I'd feel like I won the lottery, I'd tell everyone about it, even my grandkids, great grandkids lol - EXCEPT - I'd also worry why he chose my building or my neighborhood, because his art is usually making a statement about lack of social justice and capitalism run amuck in corporate greed and environmental pollution!

After that, then the Associated Press sued him for using one of their photos for that "Obama Hope" poster without permission, which may be true, but nobody said anything when Andy Warhol did the same thing 50 years ago.

He sued back under "public use" law - and then made the unfortunate choice of denying that was his source and destroying the evidence he had, which was, ya know, obviously not true and a poor decision which damaged his reputation.

But then again, was anyone surprised the "Obey" founder would call BS on the system, including public-use rights and frivolous lawsuits? 😂

I mean, this is a guy who got his start as a skateboarder, running around town with graphic artwork of wrestler Andre the Giant's face everywhere he traveled, with the word "Obey" on it, freaking everyone out.

It was less about freaking everyone out OR Andre the Giant, and more about causing everyone to question what we do and who we follow blindly - and Andre's face just happened to convey the message he wanted lol.

Now, I'm not condoning his lying about his Obama source photo.

I'm especially not defending his choice to later hypocritically sue people that used his own work without permission (although in one small defense of him, unlike press photos, his artwork was either privately commissioned or privately licensed).

I'm just saying, he's an artist and he's Shepard Fairey - and this is what Shepard Fairey does - push the envelope and provoke to get us to rethink what we currently do, maybe even for himself to think about usage and ownership? lol.

Here's just a few samples of work he's done since ...

Defend Dignity (2017)