Video: Shepard Fairey Speaks to PSFK L.A.

Shepard Fairey, skateboarder, contemporary artist, designer, illustrator, and OBEY Giant creator recently spoke at the L.A. PSFK conference on his background, motivation, his process, and his art



His perspective made me proud to be a skateboarder and really inspires original thinking.

Fairey explained, “At 14, I started skateboarding, which was linked to the culture of punk rock. Neither were mainstream and they were both very DIY. It had a creativity that said it was better just to make your own stuff.”

Speaking about how he got started during his education at RISD, Fairey said “After getting some attention for my stickers, it really opened my eyes to the idea of putting something in public that people see and get curious about. It really opened my eyes to the power of communication in public space.” This made me think about something a mentor of mine used to say quite frequently: "Stop interrupting what people are interested in...BE what people are interested in." Fairey has certainly found a way to get people curious, especially with his iconic image that he created during the Obama campaign.

Shepard's work and story really is inspirational, you should definitely watch the video

Source: PSFK (1/23/09)