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Shepard Fairey, Los Angeles artist, illustrator, graphic designer and self-titled “street artist”, created a poster in 2008 to promote his preferred candidate for president, Barak Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.

The visually arresting iconic image rendered in bold graphics reminiscent of 1930’s Socialist propaganda posters had appeared all over Chicago, and when it was featured on an Internet blog two weeks before Super Tuesday it created an international stir in both political circles and the art world. The result was the Barak campaign adopted the image for its official posters.

Pop Art or Political Campaign Poster?

The art world reacted in much the way it did when Andy Warhol created graphic illustrations based on photographs of famous American icons and presented them as fine art. The old question, “What qualifies as Art?”, came up yet again for heated debate.

His work features the thick outlines and bold colors typical of illustrated comics, but where he departed, artistically speaking, was in how he created his colors by hand painting enlarged and exaggerated dots in a parody of the cheaply printed pulp comic books of 1950s and 1960s.

Propaganda or Graffiti?

Fairey firmly believes that public space is the best place for Art…and has lived by his principles, garnering 14 arrests for posting graffiti in his earlier days. His aim is for his work to provoke reactions in people with bold simple images. He sees no conflict in making his living designing album and book covers and commercial advertisements and also promoting his personal political ideas on posters, stickers and stencils which find their way onto public walls and the tops of tall buildings.

The money Fairey earned creating Barak Obama campaign poster images he donated to the Obama campaign and got to meet the 44th President of the United States at an inauguration dinner. The President expressed his admiration for his work and amazement at the overwhelming and quick response to the poster images.

Iconic Image or Advertising Logo?

Fairey’s Studio Number One design firm is unabashedly commercial, with a client list that includes Honda, Adidas and Motorola, but was founded on the belief that “art does not just belong in museums and studios but should also be an integral part of the visual landscape”.

The Test of Time

Just as Marilyn Monroe, Mao and Che Guevara were immortalized in art as iconic images, will Barak Obama’s campaign poster image stand the test of time? Do you think in our fast-paced Internet world this iconic image may soon be replaced, or will it turn up one day at a Sotheby fine art auction and be sold for millions of dollars?

Whatever the fate of the Obama Hope poster, you can now create a photo to Obama style portrait of someone you love that will become a permanent statement of your feelings and an enduring family heirloom. When you upload a photo portrait to Paint Your Life's Your Photos on Canvas online gallery website, you can order a photo to canvas print in this unique and arresting graphic style.