Shepard Fairey assumes his DJ alter-ego for KCRW!

When he’s not designing posters or squaring off in court, Shepard Fairey can often be seen DJ’ing at local clubs, parties and festivals. (He sometimes uses the stage names DJ Diabetic and Emcee Insulin.) Now the artist has taken his weekend job to the airwaves as part of KCRW’s guest DJ series on “Morning Becomes Eclectic.”

During the show, Fairey discusses at considerable length his famous Obama “Hope” poster and his recent legal battles in Massachusetts. Appropriately, the artist chooses the Equal‚Äs Police on My Back‚ to kick off his set.

“I’ve said frequently that I became addicted to DJing because it has the same rewarding problem-solving aspects as design,” Fairey says. ”And, in fact, it’s even more fun because you’re listening to great stuff as you’re figuring out how to put it together in a way that works, that both sharing something that people may know, but also combining it in a new way that they’re not expecting, so it’s that double-up punch that gonna really make it something fun to listen to.”

Among the other singers and groups that Fairey chooses for the show are Henry Rollins, the Sex Pistols and Led Zeppelin.  You can listen to the entire show using the player above.

[Via:LATimes]

Shepard Fairey sentenced to two years probation in Massachusetts

The legal adventures of Shepard Fairey came to a head today when the L.A. street artist received a sentence of two years probation from a Boston court as part of a plea arrangement with prosecutors.

Fairey agreed to plead guilty to three vandalism charges in exchange for the prosecutors dropping 11 other charges. The artist pleaded guilty to one charge of defacing property and two charges of “wanton destruction of property” valued at under $250.

The judge also ordered Fairey to pay $2,000 to a graffiti removal organization and said that the artist cannot possess tagging materials except for legal art installations.  Fairey, 39, issued a public apology to the citizens of Boston for “posting my art in unauthorized spaces without the consent of the owner.” He also said in a statement that “I believe in the importance of making art accessible through many avenues, and I will continue to advocate the use of legal public spaces for meaningful artistic expression and communication.”

In February, Fairey was arrested while he was in Boston for a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art. He was later charged with close to 30 vandalism-related crimes,

of which prosecutors agreed to drop more than a dozen in June. Today’s sentencing means that Fairey faces no more charges in the state of Massachusetts.  But the artist’s legal troubles are far from over. In an unrelated set of cases, Fairey and the Associated Press have sued each other over the use of a photo of Barack Obama that served as the inspiration for Fairey’s popular “Hope” poster during the 2008 presidential election.

– David Ng