First, a question that’s been going around. Are you coming to the opening?

No. I'm not. I just have too much on my plate to come. I'd like to, but it's not going to be able to happen.

What’s the influence of your formal arts training versus the influence of the streets?

My work's always been a combination of the sensibility of democracy and urgency that comes with street art and DIY [do-it-yourself] culture, whether punk rock or skateboarding, but I also took art classes from a young age, so it can't really be separated. The skills you learn with formal art training are tools to allow you to achieve what you want to achieve. My mindset is about finding the best balance of the accessibility and passion of street art and the need to make an aesthetically appealing statement. It may be harder to describe than to experience. Bands like the Clash or the Sex Pistols got criticized for not being as technically [proficient]. It’s not just about technique. It's an almost impossible to describe concept. Art school was beneficial to me to show me a lot of different approaches to art, and it introduced me to a lot of different teachers and students. It gave me access to screen printing, which really became my aesthetic.

What do you see as the purpose of your art today? What’s it supposed to do?

I'm trying to make images that I enjoy making and that also share some point of view of mine. It's not always a topical point of view, but a way of doing things. My desire for empowerment, visual problem solving, passion for politics. I have more opportunities now. Before I could only make my own opportunities in street art. Street art is a really great medium but not the only one. When I was younger and had fewer options, I still made t-shirts for friends and bands. I just have more opportunities now. I just did a huge parking garage in West Hollywood. It’s a great opportunity to make public art that's going to be seen by a lot of people. It's still what I'm trying to do.

What do you think about [2010 street art documentary] Exit Through the Gift Shop?

I think it's a really well done documentary. A lot of people think it's a hoax. It's not. The thing that disturbs me about that is "Oh, this is a cautionary tale about what could happen when people are susceptible to hype." I think what Banksy did with that film is he showed some authentic stuff and that society is really susceptible to the flavor of the week. I'm not making Thierry out to be a villain. He's a sweet guy. It's more a commentary on the audience. I think it's provocative.

What is it about your art that people are reacting to?

Some people hate my work and say it’s crap and derivative. Nobody exists in a vacuum. Everyone's influenced by things…I make my work by using historical and political reference. Reference is the basic thread of language and common experience It's important to me because I'm making work designed to communicate with [an] audience. There are aspects that are recognizable as my voice and my style and there are aspects people will recognize from history.

There is a preponderance of red in your art. What’s with that? What does it mean?

There's a few reasons. One is it's the color that affects people the most intensely. When you look at historical [works] and and propaganda, a lot of the most effective things have used red to grab attention. That’s the intuitive. [On the] conceptual side, red means that there is maybe a component of manipulation or propaganda to this. It's something I want people to be aware of because part of my campaign is [for people] to question everything they're inundated with. Another practical reason is when I first started making posters for this anti-prop campaign.

What's been the most obvious sign that you've been accepted by the art establishment? I've had three solo museum shows, which is a huge deal and I'm grateful for those opportunities. The art world is not a unified front and I've gotten plenty of criticism. Plenty of people think street art is not real art. The Art in the Streets at MOCA [Museum of Contemporary Art] in L.A. was the most highly attended show [they had] but it was criticized a lot. I'm not trying to win over the art world, per se. Not just in my work, but in the genre, there is work that I think deserves to be recognized in art history. Street art is going to affect culture whether the art establishment wants to accept it or not. That's why it'll go down in public history. Like pop art. It wasn't accepted at first but it got accepted later.

Sand City is a small and quirky industrial town that is trying to shape itself into a mixed use artists haven. What's been your experience with other cities and towns that try to develop that persona? Can it be conjured or does that happen naturally or accidentally?

I think certain cities that have either a really influential set, or higher percentage, of artists can create an atmosphere that incubates art and creativity. When you look at how a lot of neighborhoods "gentrify," you look at the first places—cafes, art galleries—which attract a creative crowd. If you look at how creative people add value to a community, there are pockets around art schools, Rhode Island School of Design, San Francisco Art Institute. There's evidence of how the creative community affects the dynamic. I hope that's going to something more and more recognized. If you have a [Sand City[ politician that's creative and sensitive to what works, [an arts enclave] can work…on the other hand, creative people tend to go against the grain. I'm a little more open minded at this point. I went through my punk rock anti-fascist phase. I'm not contentious just for the sake of it. I'm not a socialist. Bad economic conditions and political turmoil inspire some of the best art. A creative response to that is more constructive than other forms of frustration you see.

Jello Biafra had an incident years ago in which he was attacked by punks because they thought he had sold out the movement...

It’s funny you brought up Jello. He's one of my heroes. I love the Dead Kennedys [Biafra’s former political punk band]. They turned me on to ideas about abuse of power, U.S. foreign policy. Jello being attacked for being a sell out when the Dead Kennedys was never commercially successful...it’s absurd. It demonstrates how even a community that's supposed to be about open mindedness develops its own hierarchy. I might not fit into certain people's definition of rebellious street art anymore. [I’m] trying to push things beyond a sub-cultural niche. It's annoying but I can deal with it. My skin bruises like anyone else’s. I'm not easily dissuaded. Jello's a friend.

[Quoting Dead Kennedys song ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’] “You ain't hardcore when you spike your hair/ When a jock still lives inside your head." [Quoting Dead Kennedys song ‘Riot’] “So you turn right around/ And play right into their hands/ And set your own neighborhood/ Burning to the ground instead.”

Those riots happened in London right after my incident in Copenhagen. [Fairey was physically assaulted on Aug. 6 by young men in Copenhagen for seemingly political reasons]. It hurt me more when it happened to Jello emotionally than what happened to me physically. I just got a black eye. I wrote on my website [about it], trying to illustrate you can't correct an injustice with another injustice. I don't feel revenge is ever the right impulse. It's a lot harder to persuade someone with a rational argument than it is to attack them with your fists. To me, things unravel, Lord of the Flies style, if you succumb to those impulses. And a lot of people do, already. It's the easy way to go—let your emotions deal with it.

How has being a diabetic affected your work, if any?

I have one tattoo. It says "diabetic" on my upper right arm. My hipster tattoo medic alert. I’ve been arrested 16 times. They don't care when they check you in that you're diabetic. Nobody gets a tattoo that's diabetic because it's cool. I’ve gotten sick a few times. There's plenty of risks when you do street art. Most people don’t have near death experiences. I'm not trying to say I'm hardcore, prove my mettle, it's just something that happens because the very forces I call out in my work, you get entangled with.

DJ Spooky, who's performed here in Big Sur, talked about appropriation, especially in DJ and hip-hop culture. Does that apply to you too?

Yeah, Paul, I know him. I definitely think some of the stuff I did early in my career was closer to remix and appropriation. I would use pieces of old posters, record covers, mixed into my work. Now I might take inspiration, but I’m not literally using those elements. I'm using my own illustrations and graphics. There might be a decorative border that I see and use…in a more general sense, a lot of the references I use are part of a broad cultural language. I’m not literally with Paul in practice, but in philosophy. [Fairey also DJs.]

What did the whole Obama poster/Associated Press affair teach you?

It taught me that people with the deepest pockets have the upper hand. There's a lot of different components of why I feel that was a perfectly appropriate thing for me or any other artist to do, to use an image. That's the concept of fair use: it doesn't harm the market, and it transforms [the content], conceptually and aesthetically. I learned don't get yourself into a fight like that casually. There are any number of things I could have done when working on that poster that would have made it more transformative. I just didn't really think that what happened was a remote possibility. One of lessons was just "be smart." There's a lot of different opinions about that case. I still believe that it was fair use. But I also understand why the AP was concerned about the transforming media landscape. This was really about [AP’s] agenda.

In what way do you reference or acknowledge the artists you borrow images from? Or is the point to strip the image of its original intent?

It depends. A lot of the stuff I did in mid- to late ‘90s…the Angela poster was a reworked version of a Cuban poster, and another was my own creation. The first one was more of an homage of this [Rene] Mederos poster from Cuba and pretty well known so I don't know how anyone could think it was my original.

If Public Enemy sampled James Brown, I don't think people would think PE did that horn stab. Another Angela Davis poster was created all by me. Maybe a bit naively, in the mid to late ‘90s, I assumed people were familiar [with the historical works] and would get that some of the pieces I made were more tributes, showing my solidarity with and appreciation of the [original work]. Also [it was] demonstrating my philosophical solidarity [with] my [Obey] campaign. I learned the lesson that some people felt cheated when they thought it was original work of mine and realized there was this remix competent. It's one of the reasons I feel compelled to make original work now. I didn't anticipate it. There's this guy who made a website [art-for-a-change.com, a critique entitled “Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey: A critique by artist Mark Vallen.”]...he took 12 of my pieces...considering I've made several hundred works, it left the opportunity to that guy to undermine that work. I'm a pretty competent illustrator. I don't need to appropriate other people's work. I looked at [my homage works] as historical tribute...but some of the pieces gave [Vallen] that ammunition. It's something that definitely has impacted me in terms of my understanding of how people perceive [my work].

Do you see art as being democratic and that everyone should feel free to create it, or is being an artist a special trait?

I think there are people that have more of a natural inclination toward art than others. Anything creative, the more people contributing to the creation of culture, the more voices, the better. Visual art has maybe one of the greater intimidation factors with the elitist system of galleries and museums. I’d like to see more people contributing. The democracy of street art, all it takes is a little bit of courage and determination. I'm not out there to tell people they should like it better in the streets or in museums.

How is what you’re doing a reference to Andy Warhol and his examination of fame and public image?

I think Warhol was important, he broadened the conversation by using accessible tools. A lot of it was designed for consumption for art world. The Velvet Underground and Interview magazine made [the conversation] a little broader. I want to make it broader, too, but I take it to the streets, making it more accessible. I'm much more overtly political. Warhol was about making art accessible, but other than the "Vote McGovern" piece, he was never really political. [Robert] Rauschenberg was more overt. There are historical [political] precedents in pop art, like Winston Smith, who did art for the Dead Kennedys, Barbara Kruger, Robbie Conal. I'm more influenced by them, in a political sense, than by Warhol.

It seems like musicians are so much more well-known than artists. People know even obscure bands, even those who haven’t put out a record yet. Why do you think that is?

Because music's not as intimidating. A lot of the game in art world has been, I think, to maintain mystery and intrigue. A lot of the artists who have done well, they've been seen as enigmas—Dali, Picasso, Pollack. It really narrows the audience. Music, first of all, is immediately appealing. It's more inviting from the get-go. Street art...is the closest visual art relative to music. People don't think you have to have a college or art history degree to comment on Banksy or me. That's good. I'm definitely not saying music panders to the lowest common denominator and neither should art. Music is disseminated through radio, record stores, it's a lot more affordable. Art usually works like this: The more successful an artist gets, the smaller the audience who could [afford] their work becomes. [Music’s] not a pyramid. In fact, the more successful you are in music, the more people you’ll reach. A super expensive painting may be on somebody's wall in someone' s house. And their guests, maybe 50 people, will see it. It's a trophy, for really wealthy people to show off. There's plenty of artists who are trying not to be completely beholden to that system.

What are you expending your time and energy on these days?

I did a bunch of murals in Copenhagen. Right now I'm working on an installation that's going inside the West Hollywood library. That's cool because the library is a democratic space. Before I had enough money to buy art books, that's where I would go. Secondly, the idea that a lot of what I've done illegally is questioning government, but ultimately, if opportunities come to infiltrate the system, that's how democracy should work. I look at doing something in a library as a triumph for democracy. I didn't brown-nose the establishment. The work I was doing made enough of an impact that it happened naturally. I'm still doing illegal street art, outdoor work. But this is kind of a coup.

How do you feel about Obama’s presidency now?

There's a post I put on my website this morning about him [http://obeygiant.com/, “Obama’s Presidency,” Aug. 22]. The New York Times did an editorial that I link to...it may be a little bit harsh. It doesn't fully examine the political gamesmanship from the right and the complete sabotage tactics—for political gains, the Republicans, led by the Tea Party, has been willing to harm the country. Every indictment of Obama needs to be qualified and contextualized with the things he hasn't had control over. That's kind of where I am. I think a lot of the country's not educated to understand why we're dealing with the problems that we have, and if Obama doesn't communicate in simple terms they can understand, he's going to be blamed for it.

Would you create art for Obama’s reelection campaign?

I don't know yet. I'm waiting for Obama to take a strong position on something I believe in supporting. I support Wall Street reform, healthcare reform, environmental reform. I don't think he's pushed hard enough. Otherwise, I'm just going to do art that is aligned with what I'm interested in and if that doesn't align with Obama then so be it.