[Daniel Silk]

www.jossip.com/shepard-fairey-sells-out-for-hope-20080825/

Shepard Fairey Sells Out (For Hope)
WHEN THE REVOLUTION PAYS

Shepard Fairey is known for his nonsensical, DIY street art OBEY (which originated with the "Andre the Giant has a Posse" stickers) of the late 90's. Now, the once anti-establishment skateboarder is making posters for the Showtime's new season of Dexter and has become the unofficial artist of Barack Obama's Hope campaign. Much like Godard in his Maoist period, Fairey's decision to make his return to the limelight a political statement gives a new sort of street cred to the artist's work.
Though let's not pretend that Fairey is only motivated by change:
An auction for a Fairey's Barack Obama collage in July netted over $100k. Yes, there's chedda to be made doing this sort of thing.
The elusive graffiti artist and international prankster Banksy sold a painting for more than double that amount last year (102,000 pounds for his "Bombing Middle England"), but Fairey's political portraits are now going for over one hundred percent more than they were only a year ago on eBay.
The man definitely has a vested interest in the historical candidate, especially since on Michelle's first day in the White House, she's going to tear out Laura's home decor and is going to need something to put up above the mantle.