Obey Giant Page #4

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one weekend and said,

"Okay, things are

not working here,

and you would like

to run your life,

and we're gonna let you."

He very quickly said,

"I want to be an artist,

and--and I want to

go to art school."

And we said, "Fine."

So he went from

studying 14 minutes a day

to working 14 hours a day,

and created a portfolio

that got him into

Rhode Island School of Design.

Hard to do in a year.

Hard to do.

Growing up in South Carolina,

watercolor, charcoal,

oil painting,

that's the only legitimate art.

But then I go to art school

and I learn about Jasper Johns.

Duchamp.

Rauschenberg.

Andy Warhol.

Barbara Kruger.

And an artist whose name

I didn't know yet

had put these posters up

of Ronald Reagan

that was

an unflattering painting

and it said "contra" above

and "diction" below

in bold type on

a yellow background

with this black and white

unflattering painting,

and I thought,

wow, this--you know,

this is political.

Just like the way

the Dead Kennedys

were protesting Reagan,

you know, this artist

is protesting Reagan.

It's good wordplay.

It's got a little bit of

a, you know, sense of humor

but it's also

painted really well.

It's just to provoke

people a little bit,

get 'em thinking,

and also entertain them

on their way to work.

This has kind of got

all the ingredients

I'm excited about.

Take that, Ronald Reagan.

Even in death,

you're not safe from me.

That was a pivotal

moment for me.

It was the work of Robbie Conal.

Robbie Conal.

He calls his work

"urban beautification."

Others call it

a mutant media fungus.

In any case,

there is guerilla artfare

in our streets.

I was just trying

to participate,

you know, in the

national conversation

about these issues

that I cared about,

like "democracy."

You know, I put it out there,

and hopefully

it might stimulate

a little bit of thought

or get people to

talk a little bit

about who is that,

you know, ugly old white guy?

And it was illegal on purpose,

I mean, as a minor form

of civil disobedience,

you know,

like your higher crimes,

like Iran-Contra

and all that stuff,

versus my municipal

code violations.

F*** you, you know, go ahead,

arrest me if you can find me.

This was Providence

before the vision

of a new young mayor

started to pull it back

from disintegration.

That young mayor

was Buddy Cianci.

I had an illustration class

in the fall of 1990,

and I decided that I have

to do something spectacular.

There was this billboard

for Buddy Cianci

that was just him

standing there waving

that said, "Cianci:

He never stopped caring

about Providence."

Seemed like a really

stupid billboard to me.

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