On a happier note, Shepard Fairey got arrested last Friday.

This is the guy known for his iconic Andre the Giants and then his even more iconic Obama posters. He has been all the rage in Boston lately, with his new show going up at the ICA and all. (I’m excited to go see it myself actually.. who wants to come see it with us?) The problem is, when fame and success come to any rebel underground indie artist, it comes with cries of “sellout” in hand. We saw it happen with Banksy in the last few years… and now it’s Shepard Fairey.

So in light of that, his getting arrested restores his lost cred somewhat. It means he is still the real thing, that he still suffers for his art. Once again he is the noble martyr that all artists are supposed to be. So that’s good… right?

Bah. I wish people would learn to think beyond such simple dichotomies.

An artist should not be dismissed simply because they are suddenly accepted into the mainstream. It is easy to fall prey to that feeling of jealousy, especially if you are an artist who has struggled for years with no attention or financial reward. (Don’t deny it… jealousy is at least a part of it.)

But I think it’s worth it to recognize a phenomenon when it is happening. And it’s not to say that Fairey himself is a phenomenon, but rather the sum of the different parts that have come together to make him so famous.

In other words, Fairey is remarkable, but even more remarkable is the way that his work has circulated into the public eye. Any other era, in any other country, the Obama poster could not have become what it is now. But a brilliant combination of his bold style, Internet-born awareness, mass media, and the US political process made it possible for it to become an icon. If people dismiss him and the extraordinary fame of that icon out of hand, people miss out on the fact that it has much more to say than just straight-up “Vote Obama! He represents hope!” I’m sure if someone did an in-depth analysis of the history of that poster, its distribution patterns, and the scores of paraodies it has spawned, that paper would reveal that the Obama poster has just as much to say as the Mona Lisa, if not far far more.