Thursday, September 3, 2009

Icons

Shepard Fairy started off his street art career in Rhode Island, operating a silk screening shop to pay for his art supplies. Now, he's one of the most well known street artists in the world, and his work is featured in contemporary art museums and on the streets of major cities. What inspires me most, is that he used something that was socially unacceptable, and illegal at the time, and somehow created a multi-million dollar business out of it. Starting off with his first famous image of Andre the Giant, Shepard used it as the image of his company, Obey. He combined street art, as well as clothing, and launched obey, which has remained very successful since it's release.



Andre the Giant was known for his size and strength, but few know him by his long path to fame and his heart. Born into a French family, Andre worked on a farm until he could no longer take the boring lifestyle he was leading, so he started wrestling and was scouted by a professional wrestler promoter, and he quickly moved to Paris to begin training and living out his dreams. I admire him for his courage to give up his life and start a completely new life at an age that young. As he gained popularity in France, he was asked to join the WWE. Because of his massive size, he became very popular in the industry and eventually became the words top paid wrestler at the time. Finally, in the eighties, Andre decided to end his career because of the pain he suffered from supporting his weight. Instead of going out in glory, he agreed to let hulk hogan beat him in a wrestling match for the championship. I think this shows that he wasn't an egotistical or vein person, which I admire.



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