Shepard Fairey, the street artist behind the famous “Hope” poster of President Barack Obama, now says that Obama hasn’t lived up to that promise of hope. He suggests that a lot of things that are out of Obama’s control made it difficult for him to fulfill the dreams of 2008.
Fairey sat down with Esquire to discuss the second season of Rebel Music, a web series he created for MTV. Of course, politics ended up dominating the discussion though.
When asked if Obama lived up to the “Hope” poster, Fairey bluntly replied, “Not even close.”
“Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he's compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he'd support],” Fairey explained. “I've met Obama a few times, and I think Obama's a quality human being, but I think that he finds himself in a position where your actions are largely dictated by things out of your control.”
He’s still not ready to give Obama a free pass, although the artist does think that the system that Obama works in needs to be changed because there is so much money in politics.
Fairey later continued, “...[W]hat frustrates me to no end are people who want to blame Obama or blame anything that is something that if they were actually doing anything as simple as voting, it might not be as bad as it is. There's a lot of finger pointing and very little action and very little research into the dynamics that created the situation that they're unhappy about.”
Fairey accused Americans of taking our freedoms for granted, adding, “We also need a public that isn't so uneducated and complacent.”
Fairey actually got into legal trouble with his “Hope” poster. As CNN notes, he filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press in 2009 after they complained that he violated copyright by using the Obama photo. He was later fined and sentenced to two years probation for it.
image via Twitter from ABC News
image via Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com