Barack Obama as Honest Abe

February 5, 2009 RSS Feed Print

We've written before about Obama art, but street artist Shepard Fairey isn't the only one inspired by our new president. Artists across the country are getting in on Obamamania.

Ron English drew on the Obama-Lincoln comparisons in his portrait of Abraham Lincoln as Obama. "They're both skinny intellectuals, and their faces lined up perfectly," says English. He put the image combining the 16th and 44th presidents up in Boston during the campaign, and it created a sensation. When he began to sell it on his website, the image sold out in five minutes. Speaking at the "Manifest Hope" art exhibit, he told our Maura Judkis that even though he frequently creates art with a political spin, Abraham Obama was a departure for him. "A lot of my art is negative, snide," English says.

Then there's Ray Noland. "People consider me to be the father of Obama artwork," says the Chicago street artist. "The posters were going up legal, illegal, I don't know. I didn't have the money to buy billboards or magazine ads." Playing off Obama's love of basketball, Noland's series Got Next! depicted the president throughout the campaign as twirling a ball and shaking hands with the country. He also depicts the media madness that surrounds the president, particularly a famous viral video star. "I'm commenting on TV media and what they consider to be news," said Noland. "Obama Girl is about objectification. It's hypocritical to put that on a pedestal as newsworthy and then critique hip-hop."

Next: Lisa Marie Thalhammer of D.C. "My work deals with powerful women," she says. "Michelle is an important figure for us to look up to." Thalhammer says that she does not usually produce politically minded art but has always been interested in portraying gender and power. Her portrait of the first lady stands out amid a sea of Obama portraits. "People around town talk about how much they admire her already," said Thalhammer. "I'm excited to see her in her new role. I thought she needed to shine."

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Wow i think that is cool.

Andrew Thompson of IA 9:42AM March 09, 2009

I suggest this imbecile republican who posted VOLUMES get with it.
What the nation needs is idiots like this to go away, while the rest of us rebuild what has been destroyed over the last 8 years.

Lisa of CA 1:27PM February 12, 2009

It seems Obama is not only capable of Orwellian double speak, but he is also an expert liar. The situation is not nearly as bad as he claims: the facts just don’t support it. This is not the worse decline since the depression; it is not even nearly as severe as the recession in 1982.
He is the most unethical and corrupt politician to ever be elected President. He has deliberately made banks, companies, and consumers unwilling to take any risks because the banks cannot know whether their loans will be repaid, whether companies can maintain profitability, and whether consumers can expect to keep their jobs. This is because of Obama’s campaign promises to regulate banks more severely, levy energy use controls and rationing, and increase taxes by doubling capital gains taxes, letting the Bush tax cuts expire, re-introducing the death tax, the marriage penalty, and to re-distribute wealth. How can this not affect confidence, it destroys the incentives – the only people who can think things will get better are the ACORN members and others on welfare who expect a substantial increase in Government payments.
No amount of spending will change this. Plus most of the spending does not build permanent private sector jobs or produce increased tax receipts. Yes, the projects have merit, but not for the purposes Obama claims.
Most of the postings on the Internet seem to say the writers actually believe Obama. Well, they should not. There is precious little discussion of the extreme concern on the part of the financial community that the borrowing of trillions of dollars will pre-empt private borrowing all over the world, and, the only way this can possibly work is to invite inflation, suffer a decline in the value of the dollar, and increase in interest rates. This is exactly what happened in the 1930’s New Deal, and the “buy American” pressure is very similar to what happened at that time. So, we have history staring us in the face which says “this won’t work.” And, it deepened and lengthened the depression because it cut credit to the private sector.

Arthur LEMAY of CA 9:31AM February 06, 2009

Barack Obama as Honest Abe

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