Shephard Fairey • Natural Springs • Color

Shepard Fairey • Natural Springs • Color

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Shepard Fairey is one of the most renowned and successful street artists in the world today. He first gained notoriety with his "Andre The Giant" street art stickers which eventually morphed into his Obey brand because of legal challenges over his use of the famous wrestler. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Fairey's Obama "Hope" poster also got him into trouble when a news photographer sued Fairey for appropriating Obama's image from one of the photographer's news photos. All that controversy has not slowed Fairey down a bit. It has elevated his profile and opened him up to many new opportunities. One of these was a commission by Mana Fine Arts in Jersey City, NJ for his "Natural Springs" mural on the exterior of an old ice factory.

The "Natural Springs" is a beautiful image of a woman with a flower and floral patterned wallpaper. It looks like an old time ad for something natural and pure. But the mural has an ironic twist which Fairey loves to play with in his art. If you look more closely you will see oil derricks and logos with "power" and "glory" written below. There are even gas pump handles hidden within the floral pattern of the wallpaper! So his "Natural Springs" title is not referring to the H20 variety but actually to petroleum oil! Hence the dollar sign and the skull straddling an oil derrick on the last panel.

I was able to make it over there yesterday to take some photographs with my iPhone 6S Plus. The building is located in a post-industrial zone under highway ramps which makes it look and feel like a dead end. Google has not photographed the area since the mural was painted in 2015 and I can see why!

Here is a link to Google Maps with the building still looking like a fresh canvas waiting for some street art to be applied: https://tinyurl.com/streetartchallenge

Thank you to @spidersprog for creating this #streetartchallenge!