Urban Tagger Obama Logo Artist Paints Ugly Self-Portrait And Other Tacky Stuff Also Too
By
pparets
on July 11, 2009 at 05:03 am
BOSTON (July 10) - The artist who created the “Hope” poster of President Barack Obama was sentenced to two years of probation Friday after pleading guilty to three vandalism charges. Prosecutors dropped 11 other charges.
Shepard Fairey pleaded guilty in Boston Municipal Court to one charge of defacing property and two charges of wanton destruction of property under $250, all misdemeanors.
The 39-year-old Los Angeles street artist, who became famous for plastering his posters and stickers throughout cities, must pay $2,000 to a graffiti removal organization and cannot possess tagging materials — such as stickers or paste — in Boston except for authorized art installations. He also must tell officials when he plans to visit Suffolk County, where Boston is located.
“I think that people should be responsible about sharing their art, and that’s not a transition or an evolution of my philosophy,” Fairey said outside court. “Fortunately, I’m at a place in my career where I can get sanctioned spaces, so it’s not an issue that I’ll ever have to worry about again.”
Fairey was arrested in February when he was in Boston for an event kicking off a solo exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The arrest came three days after he failed to appear in court on a charge of placing a poster on a Boston electrical box in September 2000.
In the plea deal, Fairey admitted to the 2000 incident and two others this past January: placing a sticker on the back of a traffic sign and affixing a poster to a private condominium building.
