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Transcription: [00:09:04]
{SPEAKER name="Shepard Fairey"}
Sure.

[00:09:05]
My relationship with the campaign really didn't start until after I had made the Obama image.

[00:09:14]
Um, I initially wanted to make an Obama image but I didn't want to do so without at least, um, permission from the campaign, though I didn't have a relationship with anyone from the campaign, so

[00:09:30]
my friend Josie who knew someone inside the campaign said, "Shepard Fairey would like to make a poster supporting Barack Obama-- are you guys okay with that?". And that was actually in October of 2007.

[00:09:45]
And not until the second week of January 2008 did, um, was permission granted and I did the illustration that very night and had the poster in production the following day.

[00:09:59]
But I didn't want to be-- I have a somewhat sordid past as a street artist, having been arrested, being, in my opinion, expressing my free speech and being a patriot because I'm sharing my ideas about how the country can be improved, through my art.

[00:10:18]
But, um, you know, technically some of it's illegal. And I didn't want to be a liability to the Obama campaign.

[00:10:25]
But once I made the image, and it caught on, the Obama campaign said, "We can't use the image you've created because we know that we can't control how you're disseminating it and it's not a photograph we have the rights to, but would you make another image for us?"

[00:10:42]
And so, ultimately I did two images for them that I donated, that were, uh, one said "Change" beneath it and the other said "Vote".

[00:10:51]
{SPEAKER name="Wendy Wick Reaves"}
With this acquisition we see free street art, if you will, converging with viable commercial art and fine art object donated to a national museum.

[00:11:01]
And you've said you see all of those components as one piece, one process. Could you tell us how you would like to see this piece interpreted at the National Portrait Gallery?

[00:11:12]
And, to take it just one step further, what does this say about the broader world of art and design and those disparate elements, all of which you've participated in?

[00:11:22]
{SPEAKER name="Shepard Fairey"}
Well, I have been drawing since I was a little kid, but I never really thought about the dynamics of the fine art world vs. the commercial art world vs. the illustration world until I got a little bit older, went to art school, and, um, I'm very stubborn.

[00:11:48]
And I thought, "Well, I want to do all of it." [[laughs]] And really, I think that for most people becoming a painter, a fine artist, is very unrealistic. There's a very very small percentage of people who can pull that off as a career.

[00:12:07]
So my thought was, I want to make posters, t-shirts, do album packaging for people, make skateboard graphics, and do my own street art and bypass getting a gallery to grant me permission to put my work on their walls and take my work straight to the people.

[00:12:27]
But, you know, also be able to express myself the way I want as a 'fine artist'. So, there are a lot of different things that I care about that are, you know, converging in the way that I work.

[00:12:38]
I'm a populist; I'm trying to reach as many people as possible.

[00:12:42]
I love the concept in fine art of making a masterpiece, something that will endure. But I also understand how short the attention span of most consumers is and that you really need to work with the metabolism of consumer culture, a lot of times, to make something relevant within the zeitgeist.

[00:13:06]
So, what I hope people take away from my image, if they care to look at my history, is that an artist can be multi-dimensional, they can fuse a lot of different things they care about into what they do everyday and, you know, it's not necessary to paint yourself into a corner with categories.

[00:13:38]
{SPEAKER name="Wendy Wick Reaves"}
Well I think you have created a masterpiece in this work, and we're really thrilled to have it at the Portrait Gallery. Thank you.

[00:13:45]
{SPEAKER name="Shepard Fairey"}
Thank you so much. I'm really honored to be in the Portrait Gallery.

Transcription Notes:
Wendy Wick Reaves = the correct spelling of her name