Street art o’ the week– Fairey on Houston

Thursday afternoon, I decided to stop by the Mural the Shepard Fairey is working on, in the East Village. I had originally wanted to go by on Wednesday, but it ended up raining like crazy. Today worked out well, though. I was on my way through the neighborhood, anyway, for the Earth Day party at Kiehl’s. Fairey was out working on the wall. After shooting a few frames I said what’s up and told him that I had met him at the TS collab with Levis. He said that he remembered me (pretty cool for him say, whether true or not), then wiped the gold spray paint off of his hand before shaking mine and asking me to remind him of my name. We then chatted for about 10 minutes about random stuff including the impending gallery exhibit, before he hooked me up with a handful of stickers, and invited me over for beers. Ok, ok, the invitation for beers was a joke.

The reason that I’m telling this story, is because I think it is so cool that despite being such an icon, Fairey has not let it go to his head. It is true that I was a fan of his art before I knew much about the guy. But the fact that has the personality and attitude to back it up makes me like his stuff even more.

Fairey was even mellow with this little kid (below) who was passing by with is parents. Can’t wait to check out the exhibit next week.

A few more shots over here.