Shepard Fairey is the artist behind the iconic Obama “Hope” poster in blue/red as well as variations thereof. A version was on the cover of TIME magazine and now he’s released a special poster for the inauguration.
I caught an interview with Shepard recently on The Colbert Report. He also talked about one of his earlier projects called OBEY. Here’s how he described it:
My concept with this was that people actually follow the path of least resistance and frequently are not actually happy with thier lives. But if they are confronted with the idea of having to make the choice to whether obey or disobey,
I think frequently they will at least have an inner dialogue and maybe make a choice to do things the way they think they should be done, rather than the way they are being told to do them.
From an interview on The Colbert Report, January 15, 2009
The idea of thinking and critiquing ourselves and society is a continuing process. It doesn’t stop when you reach a milestone birthday or when something in particular happens. We must reevaluate again and again. Same is true with society. Critique, thinking and questioning must continue into Obama’s presidency. No matter who is in office in this country, or any other, keeping them accountable and doing what we can to make change, are key.
