Shephard Fairey

During the late ‘80s and all through the ‘90s he “bombed” countless cities across America. Being in New York City, it was hard not to pass a light pole, a doorway or an industrial alley that didn’t have Andre the Giant staring back at you… and New Yorkers loved it. At least, my friends and I did, although NYPD definitely did not. While in New York to talk about his new DAMAGE mobile APP, the 48-year-old Shepard Fairey visited our office, where he sat down to be photographed and talk about, well, his extraordinary life.

Let’s start at the beginning. I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. My mom was head cheerleader. My dad was captain of the football team. It was a conservative upbringing. I went to the same private high school as Steven Colbert I wasn’t exposed to a lot of progressive art. I love to draw and paint from the time I was a little kid, but it wasn’t really until I got into skateboarding and punk rock that I started to see art that was non-traditional and that made a big impact on me.

When I got to the Rhode Island School of Design, that was a real melting pot of people. I started to be exposed to a lot of different perspectives — pop art and political art from people like Barbara Kruger and Robbie Conal. That’s when I started to connect the dots between artists like Raymond Pettibon, who did the work for Black Flag, Winston Smith who did the work for the Dead Kennedys and Jamie Reid, who did stuff for the Sex Pistols.

Tell us about Futura (2000)?

I discovered Futura through the Clash. On the song overpowered by funk, he’s got a rap on it that talks about graffiti — “We threw down by night. They scrubbed it off by day.” Then I realized that he did the handwritten lyrics inside the Combat Rock album package and he did the “Radio Clash” single cover. He was a huge influence for me because, prior to that, I don’t think anyone other than Keith Haring had utilized so many platforms in a really effective way. And he’s also just a really cool guy.

Before the Andre the Giant, did you have a signature piece?