This election has been unique. In the enthusiasm of support, grass roots supporters have put up hundreds of posters and stickers of Barack Obama, emblazoned with the word “Hope,” on stop signs, underpasses, buildings, and billboards. T-shirts abound with a wide variety of images, messages, and quotes.
Most of the memorable work of this election has not come from ad agencies but from a subculture of artists and crafters who have used a myriad of materials to show their support for Barack Obama. Oddly, there is no similar support for John McCain.
Two of the more major print artists whose work has appeared around the nation and throughout Europe are Ray Noland, thirty-five, a freelance graphic designer and Shepard Fairey, a thirty-eight-year-old street artist.
Fairey, who created an image of Obama with “hope,” and various other slogans, at the bottom, has been thanked personally by the Obama campaign. He has been arrested multiple times for trespassing and vandalism while putting up his guerrilla art and was worried that Obama’s campaign might not want to be associated with street art. “When you look at how the general public looks at [street art], they’re scared of it,” he says. “They associate it with gang bangers and anarchists.” However, without condoning tagging, the Obama campaign has embraced his art and enthusiasm.
Ray Noland first sold his posters to friends with basketball imagery to appeal to urban youth. In North Carolina, Noland was surprised by a visit from Michelle and Barack Obama, who “spent all of this time just gazing at the images,” Noland said. Obama told him to keep up the good work.
In July of this year, Def Jam Recordings founder Russell Simmons hosted his annual celebrity-studded benefit at his home in East Hampton, NY to raise money for his arts-education charity. The leading auction item was artist Shepard Fairey’s stenciled Obama portrait. The presale bidding for the work donated by the artist had reached $60,000, double its initial estimate. The gala raised more than $575,000 in total.
However, these two artists are not the end of what’s out there in support for Obama’s campaign. Before the convention, MoveOn.org hosted the Manifest Hope Gallery Contest—a national art competition. Artists from around the country were asked to submit work about Obama or works centered on the themes of hope, progress, change, patriotism, or unity. The Manifest Hope Gallery was created in Downtown Denver for the convention and continues to sell art online to benefit the campaign at Manifesthope.com.
If you want to keep on top of the art as it hits the streets for Obama, you can check out Obama Art Report. It’s a blog set up for artists to get their work out there and I must say some of the t-shirts are amazing. It also includes the Art for Obama, which is an online auction to raise money for the campaign and is full of provocative work.
If you surf the internet then you will find other crafters, needle-felting kits, crochet and knitting patterns, and embroidery patterns all to support Barack Obama’s campaign. The options are seemingly endless.
Just to round this out so you don’t think I’m completely biased on the subject, I did look for some McCain/Palin art and you can find the usual smattering of created t-shirts on CafePress.com and a few conservative t-shirt and bumper sticker sites, but none of the amazing support that Obama seemingly commands.
Megan Smith, in an article at Blogher.com on videos and music of the campaign, puts it best: “But I gotta tell you, you Republicans need to get off the dime. I can find as many pro-Obama videos and song parodies as I want. But if I want pro-McCain or pro-Palin comedy, I’m up the creek without a paddle.” (Check out the rest of her post here.) Maybe this is exactly the gauntlet the Republicans need—get behind your candidate and create!
