Obey Giant Page #6

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Mear had a Bush

with a paper airplane

with an explosion

in the back that said,

"Let's play Armageddon."

Robbie Conal's was

a Bush caricature

that said,

"Read My Apocalips."

And we had a postering party.

We got everybody

to a parking lot,

gave everybody buckets

of glue, brushes,

and we plastered LA

with those posters, you know,

from Venice to East LA.

And it was--

it was pretty great.

ABC News has learned

that Senator John Kerry

will concede the

presidential election

of 2004.

Ladies and gentleman,

I give you the President

of the United States.

(cheering)

I really was stunned

when Bush was

re-elected in 2004.

(cheering)

One of the things

I thought about was

that fear seemed to be

so much more persuasive

than an aspiration

to do right by humanity.

(applause)

After continuing to make

anti-war and

anti-Bush images

throughout

his second term,

one of the things

I'd come to terms with

is that what works

in American politics

isn't the most

sophisticated argument usually.

It's the most

relatable argument.

Vivienne had

been born in 2005.

Obey Giant.

Yeah!

Bless you!

Amanda was pregnant

with Madeline.

And I was thinking

not about

what's going to...

shore up my

brand as a rebel

but really

what kind of--

what kind of

presidency do I want

my kids to be

growing up under.

Do we participate

in a politics

of cynicism

or do we participate

in a politics of hope?

It's the hope of slaves

sitting around a fire

singing freedom songs.

The hope

of immigrants

setting out for

distant shores.

The hope of a young

naval lieutenant

bravely patrolling

the Mekong Delta.

The hope of

a millworker's son

who dares to

defy the odds.

The hope of a skinny

kid with a funny name

who believes that America

has a place for him too.

(cheering)

I had seen Obama's

speech at the DNC in 2004

and I thought that that

was a strong speech.

I started to look at

more of his speeches,

more of his writing,

his policy positions,

and I thought,

"Okay, this is someone

I could actually be for

rather than just

being against stuff."

I was frequently

against stuff,

and that's a very

easy way for people

in the counterculture to go,

and it's the most common

way for people to go.

To stand for something,

in a lot of ways,

takes more courage

than to just be critical.

Senator Barack Obama!

A young charismatic

senator named Barack Obama.

Illinois Junior

Senator Barack Obama.

Hello, everybody.

Hi, how are you?

These senators

have co-sponsored

the Darfur Peace

and Accountability Act.

The most important thing

that we can do right now

is to re-engage

the American people

in the process

of governing

to get them excited

and interested again

in what works

and what can work

in our government.

We will change

the course of history,

and the real journey

to heal the nation

and repair the world

will have truly begun.

Thank you.

One of the things

that I was worried about

creating an image for Obama

was that I would be

an unwelcome endorsement.

I wanted to be

helpful not hurtful,

so I had a friend

who knew someone

that was helping with

the Obama campaign,

they reached out, said,

"Hey, do you guys mind

if Shepard does

a poster in support?"

And they said,

"No, it's cool.

We know his stuff.

Yeah, tell him

to go ahead."

The concept

was to use

red, white,

and blue tones

within a portrait

where the lighting

was hitting

Obama's face in a way

that half his

face would be red

and the other half

would be blue and white,

but that, you know,

they would be

converging in the middle.

The idea that, you know,

they can come together.

I also had been

a big fan of, you know,

the John F. Kennedy

where he's sort of

got that gaze

into the future,

and there's a reason that

it connects with people,

that idea that someone's

looking off into the distance

and they know something

about the future

that you don't know yet.

That's powerful.

So then I just looked

through Google Images

to find images that

had the right lighting,

the right tilt

to the head,

and I found about five

different reference images

that I thought I could

make the illustration from.

And then chose the one

that everyone knows.

The first 750

posters I printed

said "Progress"

at the bottom,

but then someone from

the Obama campaign said,

"Hope and Change

are really

the slogans

that we're using,"

so I changed it to "Hope"

because I do think

that for the entire

eight years of Bush,

a lot of people

felt hopeless.

So I really like--

I liked "Hope."

That's the original

"Hope" poster.

And I said, "You guys are

free to use the image."

And they said, "No, we

don't want to use the image

because it's grassroots,

it's coming

from the margins,

it's not coming

from the campaign."

And they were

right about that.

I wanted the image

to get out there,

so I put a free

download on my website.

Any time someone said,

"There's gonna be

a rally in Denver,

we need posters,"

I had people

shipping stuff out.

And any time

a magazine said,

"Can we reprint

the image?"

I sent them the file.

I was doing interviews

about it almost daily

and it just kept growing

until the election.

Eventually, I printed

300,000 posters

and half a million stickers.

They didn't offer to pay me

and I didn't ask to be paid.

I did sell a couple of paintings

of the Obama image

and 1200 prints

to pay for

the 500,000 stickers

and 300,000 posters,

but one of the things that

was very important to me

was that it

didn't appear

that I was

motivated financially

to do any of the

work I was doing.

You must be

loaded these days.

Are you rolling in it?

Is this your cash cow?

Do you say,

"Cha-ching, no more art"?

Is this it?

Are you retiring

on this thing?

No, I'm not.

What do you mean--

what do you mean?

You gotta be

making some cash

off this thing, right?

Well, it's--

I benefit from

this in other ways.

One is Obama's

gonna be president.

(cheering)

It was crazy to see

an image of mine

that wasn't created

by the Obama campaign

become as well-known

or more well-known

than anything that

was created officially.

Country first,

all right?

That's what I'm saying.

Obama sent me a letter

saying, you know,

"I'd like to thank

you for using your art

in support

of my campaign."

The bottom is signed,

"Barack Obama."

With an actual

signature with a pen.

(Shepard laughs)

Could be like Warhol

and his mom does

his signature

or his assistant

or something,

but I'd like

to believe

Barack wrote this

and signed this.

It makes me feel awesome.

He's got my vote.

(cheering)

(chanting "Obama")

It was my mom's

birthday, November 4th,

and Amanda and I

went to a big event

at this convention hall.

(cheering)

I mean, this--

this just relief

that was so

overwhelming hit me

and I just

started weeping.

It--and I

called my mom.

It was--it was

really awesome.

Black, white, Hispanic,

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