People love to try and point out that a working artist is "selling out" by doing commercial work. Shepard's level of notoriety makes his philanthropic projects that much more successful because people know who he actually is.

He also has a small child and a wife to support. Here's an idea: how about you look at his entire output before you call someone a sell out because they choose to be a "professional" artist.

Perhaps selling out is when a corporate suit is telling you what to create. I'll bet Fairey came up with this idea all on his own!

And what's with the obvious bias at the end, the connotation that Obama has already won the election?

Ok, yeah he didnt "sell out" when he made the obama shit, the sold out a long time ago when he started selling his shit in Urban Outfitters. OBEY GIANT pretty much single handedly gave graffitti/street wear a face to every kid who never fuckin wrote anygthing in his life. OBEY is in nordstroms for fuck sakes, nordstroms is pretty much the biggest clean cut corporote bullshit (I fuckn worked there) and OBEY is there… c'mon, look at SEVENTHLETTER or KRINK, they are both making BANK, and not in UO or other weak corporate crap. OBEY doesnt even print their own shit, they have some print shop do it for them… good for him for using his influence (IE everyone who likes graff, but NEVER does it) for something he beleives in.

because he certainly allready does everything he can for money

Shepard didn't sell out. He just was at the right place at the right time. What better way to express your political view with graphic design?

shepards never sold out. he's got a balance of professional and illegal art. which is the most important thing to have. you cant make money if your not professional and you cant express yourself unless you get up. he's def got it all figured out.

News flash, Shepard Fairey IS the official Obama campaign artist and he WAS told what to do. He changed the wording from PROGRESS to HOPE because Obama's handlers feared it would make Obama look Marxist. They also told him to remove a few other features from his original concept. So the MAN is telling Mr. Posterboy what to do now.

More importantly we should focus on Shepard Fairey's art theft. He has stolen from over a dozen artists half of which are still very much protected by international copyright laws.

True, he is a professional artist now, but that means that professional rules and laws apply. So he can't use the street art mentality of violating copyright without care if he is going to profit from his work. He actually paid off one artists family and pulled an image from his production line after the family came forward.

He says that he wants to pay tribute to artists who have influenced him. But he does not mention those artists by name until someone points out that he ripped their work. He says his work is "parody" but if that were true he would not be using obscure works without letting people know about those works. YOu can't make a comment of parody on something if people don't know anything about the original artwork.

I could make a parody of Mickey Mouse and you would know what I'm referencing. But stealing from an artist from Cuba and calling it parody simply does not work within the law. Plus, if his use of the Mederos image was legal he would not have paid the family off.

About his wife and kid. Most of us have family to support. Street art cost tax payers over 20 billion per year. So I don't thin Shepard Fairey cares if you are able to feed your kids or not.

This guy is fake and the only reason he is landing so many shows at high prices right now is because the art community is liberal and are on the Obama bandwagon. If Obama wins he will continue to have exhibits like he has been having. If McCain wins people will forget about Shepard Fairey within a month and he will be back to hoping that Juxtapoz or some other underground rag covers his theft.