Master of Trade

For this week we were assigned to create a presentation about a master of our trade who we would like to emulate, particularly in terms of their career trajectory. I chose Shepard Fairey as I admire the way in which he is able to span the mediums of design, illustration and street art while still being financially stable which is due in part to his agency 'Studio Number One' which regularly serves very important and wealthy clients such as Coca-cola, Disney, Google, Nike and many many others. This level of security is admirable.

Fairey has also had his work displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Smithsonian and National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Museum of Contemporary Arts in San Diego and The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

However the presentation deemed best in our group was on Raymond Pettybon. This presentation was very well researched and written out and out of all of the ones we heard, i learnt the most in this one, not only about the man but also why he is looked up to by others.

Pettibon is an American Artist based in New York who has done a lot of work for punk rock bands, particularly posters and album art for SST Records in California. He works with Indian Ink and most of his early work is strictly black and white with only the very occasional use of colour through paints, pencils and collage. It is the black and white images such as the one shown here which he is well known for.

In 1976, Raymond's brother Greg Gill formed Black Flag which would go on to be a hugely influential punk band. In the early days when the band couldn't find a bassist, Raymond filled in and also designed much of the bands artwork including their iconic logo. It was after this that Pettibons art began appearing everywhere such as on Skateboards, Tshirts, fliers, album covers etc.

Images Taken From:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Shepard-fairey-2011-westhollywood.jpg
http://176.32.230.27/d5media.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ObeyIconhighrescopy.jpg
http://artobserved.com/artimages/2013/12/Raymond-Pettibon-via-Guardian.jpg
http://cdn1.smosh.com/sites/default/files/legacy.images/smosh-pit/082010/ptttibon-18.jpg