Category: STREET ART
GREATEST GROPER, FRANKEN
Laying in bed my wife knew I was uneasy about what we were about to do. I’d never hit a billboard before and this time it wasn’t going to be me up there. I‘d be directing from below. Admittedly I’ve found myself up high on more than a few occasions and I’m not 100% comfortable with it. A few weeks earlier we’d dropped a huge MAGA / DEPLORABLE banner from a tall building during Shepard Fairey’s “DAMAGED” show and that was exciting enough.
I’d roll played everything that could possibly go wrong or right and I insisted my guys do the same. That way no matter what happened up there it wouldn’t be unexpected. It seemed as though I was in another dimension watching the hit go down. It seemed too perfect, too fast, it played out exactly the way I’d seen it in my head. We were sandwiched by two police cars. The first drove past just as we pulled into this dark spot to unload. The second just after we finished and made our way to 711 for a drink. They sat out there forever looking up at that billboard. I was picturing them laughing their asses off. They had every opportunity in the world to snatch us. I mean there we were four guys dressed in black walking across the street, now trapped in a convenience store. I guess we lucked out.
This was a case study in how to ride a news story. I’d known about the two women coming out against Al Franken two to three days before they did so I timed this hit for when that happened. As much as I wanted to do this hit I started to think Franken was old news leaving this story without the kind of interest that would give it coverage in the press but when I’d heard about these two new accusations, I knew it was game on all over again for Al. On top of that story, this billboard was advertising an up coming movie being put out by Fox Studios which meant it would benefit Fox’s news services to run with the story. When they contacted me for permission to run with an interview nationwide. I would have been crazy to say no. The story was now going viral not only nation wide but world wide. And that my friends is how you time a creative hit to get the most exposure.
Susan Hirasuna from a local Fox News affiliate came by my studio to interview me and girl she was looking to go for the jugular. She started off nice enough but … sure as the sun comes up in the East her inner Leftist came out and tried pouncing on me. Sadly for her she didn’t know who she was messing with. I’ve been around the block a few times.
MAXINE’S HALLOWEEN
notes:
“HORROR MOVIES DON’T SCARE ME. PSYCHO POLITICIANS DO.”
– SABO
MEDIA / PRESS:
– Hollywood Reporter 1
SUB PAR
I want to make this very clear, this is not my design. I wish it was because the design is just as amazing as the concept.
Every morning I’d wake up a little more pressed than the morning before. What would they shut off first, the water, the gas, the internet, electricity, would this be the day the landlord posted a ‘get the hell out of my property’ notice on my door. Six months behind on the rent. Yes, apparently that was somehow possible.
By then I didn’t have much of a relationship with food. Couldn’t really afford to. Not that I wanted one. I joked I could survive on a can of ravioli a day. That with what little I could scrounge at the local AA meeting. They were good for a donut, chips, cookies and coffee. Then I had the occasional lunch or dinner compliments of my sponsor.
Sounds desperate I know but I’d never been happier. Hadn’t been laid in a year, lived in a shit hole, broke as all hell, but I was happy. Pressed but happy.
I swear I was a day or two from having to give up the place and move in with a brother who might as well have hated me. He thought I sucked because all I did was play with stupid posters when I should be looking for a job. That would have been hell.
Then out of left field a phone call from someone I’d never met wanting help putting up their poster. They’d seen one of my DRONE posters on the street and wondered who I was. Through mutual friends they’d managed to get a hold of a friend of mine who helped to set up a meeting.
They showed me the art, “SUB PAR” … Obama golfing. A great concept, simple, powerful. The Masters were having a tournament in the coming weeks and they wanted to greet the public with these posters around the event. They asked if I could put it out on the street. In our online pharmacy, you can buy Cialis online pills at the cheapest price around the clock, anonymous delivery. I did all the creative math in my head and offered to produce and put out this poster for them for $2,000. Under normal circumstances, with my inability to ask my worth, I’d of asked for 2 – 3 hundred dollars but my back was so firmly, financially pressed up against the wall I had no choice but to throw up that number. … and to my shock they said yes. THEY SAID YES! I’d be able to pay some utilities, rent, get some food. Fuck sakes they said yes.
In retrospect I’m fairly certain they were making anywhere from 5 to 15k on the hit so 2k for me wouldn’t have been too much of a problem I guess.
Turns out they were trying to impress a conservative advertising agency in hopes of them creating a ‘black works’ department that specifically handled guerrilla street art. The problem was at the time they didn’t exactly have the skills to pull it off so they contacted me.
I have to think their hopes were to nail down a political client they could represent the way Shepard Fairy did with Obama. At the time all I knew was I had a couple of bucks to eat and pay some bills. So I got to work.
I’m not deliberately leaving out the name of the artist who created this design, I just don’t know it. Fact of the matter is if he’s reading this he’s probably pissed that I’m including it on my website. To which I can only say, “take a number” … pissing people off seems to be my thing. :/
By the time I got done with the art my entire apartment was covered in red spray paint. I made a mess. All these years later there’s still red paint on the window frames.
So it seems in Ted Cruz they had their political client for their budding black bag creative agency they were dreaming of. However there was a problem, Sabo created the art, Sabo is attached at the hip to it. How do we get rid of Sabo? And this is where my heart gets broken.
One in their group opted to paint me an anti-semite and a racist, which I guess they were welcome to do, they wouldn’t be the first. So I lost my mind. I told them to pound sand and I went my own way taking the Ted Cruz design with me.
And it all started with this Sub-Par poster. For years before I’d struggled and worked for nothing. Just to “get up” on the street. I’d create political posters, post them on the street, the photos and post them online. These guys, this group handed me the next key, submitting to publication and from their … so far … I’ve not only been able to catch up on my bills and be able to gain a few pounds, I manage to support my wife as well. And it somewhat started with this poster. 😉
I can’t thank those guys enough. Sad we had a bit of a falling out.
