skrapnel

Love this picture of a rainbow over Gaza.  I think rainbows are a sign of good fortune and luck.  For the sake of the innocent civilians, let’s hope this applies to the Isreal-Palestinian conflict.

A rainbow is seen over the northern Gaza Strip, from the Israel-Gaza Border, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009. Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip were ordered to hold their fire early Sunday after Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire meant to end three devastating weeks of war against militants who have terrorized southern Israel with rocket barrages. But hours after the truce took hold, militants fired rocket salvoes into two Israeli communities, threatening to reignite the violence. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

If you know me, you know I love culture jammer and guerrilla artist Shepard Fairey.  That’s why it thrilled me to no end when I read that his iconic poster of Obama was purchased by and hung in the National Portrait Gallery this weekend.

I first fell in love with Fairey’s work when I saw the “Obey Giant” campaign in the 90′s.  I remember wondering why someone would paste up Andre the Giant’s face with “Obey” underneath it.  I had my own ideas, and so did my friends.  We were all kind of waiting for the full marketing/ad campaign to be revealed.  When we found out it was just art, it really taught me how affected we are by commercial art.  Most of all, I loved how Fairey was trying to recliam our common public spaces by putting up art that makes us think instead of try to buy something.

Fairey usually takes a discerning and negative approach to the government and those who control the media. Obama’s idealism inspired Fairey to make positive posters.  He also wanted to inspire young voters to get involved in the electoral process–and it worked:

“My desire for the image was to make something that I thought was patriotic and iconic but unique enough to capture the interest of people.”

He released the image on his Web site shortly after he created it and made thousands of posters for the street. As its visibility caught on, supporters began downloading the image and distributing it at campaign events, while blogs and other Internet sites picked it up.

“It was both the visible presence of the posters and the Internet combined that yielded an immediate viral storm,” he said.

At first, Obama’s team just gave him permission to make the image, he said. But soon after he created it, a worker involved in the campaign asked if Fairey could make an image from a photo the campaign had rights to, he said. Fairey changed the portrait’s bottom phrase to “change” for a revised illustration.

Fairey has since started working on posters against the passing of California’s Prop 8, saying: “When we become authenticity police for love, we’re on really shaky ground.”

For those not familiar with Shepard’s work, you can check out his website or his books: Obey: Supply & Demand : The Art of Shepard Fairey, a 20 year retrospective issued in 2006, or last year’s E Pluribus Venom.

Also, check out this great slide show from the LA Times of other artists’ portraits of Obama.

Do you think the inclusion of guerrilla artist Shepard Fairey in the National Gallery legitimizes culture jamming?  Will we finally stop selling out our public spaces to the highest bidder? Or will marketers use this style to try and target the young, hip set?

This whole argument over whether Obama should have a blackberry–or even email–is pointless.   When I worked for Unisys in the first few years of the Bush administration, the Defense Department and Homeland Security were both using Blackberries.  If all the advisers are, shouldn’t the guy who is leading them?

I understand the security argument, but not sure I understand how any sort of business–including that of government–can be efficient with just paper and oral-based communications.  Thank God we have an incoming president who understands what those of us who’ve worked in any business over the last 15 years know: Emails aren’t private.

Check this Obama quote from an interview with CNN’s John King:

“Now, my working assumption, and this is not new, is that everything I write on e-mail could end up being on CNN. So I make sure that — to think before I press ‘send.’”

Prez Bush the 2nd had to give up email when he entered office.  I’ll let you decided why.

The real question is: Do you think Obama is savvy enough to switch the Gov’s email to Gmail?