Shep Fairey — he of the ubiquitous Obama poster, the ubiquitous Obey Giant street-art campaign, and countless other works, has now portrayed the Dalai Lama in this new portrait, Compassion.
You may recall that Fairey recently portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi as well.
Done to celebrate His Holiness’s 75th birthday, Compassion is available from Fairey’s website, and net proceeds will be split between Tibet House and LA Friends of Tibet. (The Dalai Lama’s birthday is on July 6.)
Of the piece, Fairey says:
“I’ve always had great admiration for His Holiness and his non-violent approach to the plight of the Tibetan people. When I was approached with the opportunity to work with this beautiful image as a sanctioned source and create a work that evokes the Dalai Lama’s presence as I feel it, I was thrilled. I hope His Holiness remains a presence of compassion in the world for many birthdays to come!”
Compassion goes on sale at “a random time” today, here. Only 500 will be available, so hurry. UPDATE: all 500 copies have already sold out as of early this afternoon.
Another small update: You might also like seeing this Burmese monk from the Obey archives.
Thanks to Born Infinite for the tip.
I’ll let the image do the talking for a moment here:
Beautiful, ain’t it?
In case you didn’t know: it’s a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi, imprisoned leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma, as rendered by the great Shepard Fairey. You know, he of the Obama “Hope” poster, the famous “Obey/Giant” campaign, and a zillion other things.
I for one feel that we’re quite fortunate that the attentions and talents of so gifted a visual communicator are being applied to something that so many people in our community care so deeply about.
(If you’re reading this right now, you’re part of that community. At least that’s how I see it.)
The Obama/Hope image, which became truly ubiquitous, is only one example of how much real, capital-H Hope — and possibility – a good image can convey. And it seems that, more and more, this is becoming Fairey’s stock in trade. Though he can paint a bleak — but often necessary — picture with some of his images, he does “Hope” very, very well.
He sure has here, hasn’t he? And I think when it comes to Aung San Suu Kyi, the more Hope we can muster, the better.
Thanks to the always-there Kin, who contributes this shot of a mural found in Boston’s Chinatown:
It’s a strange and busy, thangka-by-way-of-Keith Haring affair, put up in 1988 for the “South Cove Community Health Center Tobacco Control Mural Project,” which explains the congested, smoky details that are found it in it. Like this one:
Weird and cool.
OK. Not really. But kinda. Check it out. We got an email from none other than the very venerable monk, Ven. Amaranatho, wherein he sent this shot and the below explanation:
“Hi There,
“we did this graffiti with the kids and young people and Amaravati Buddhist Monastery family camp 2002. We’ll probably do another one this year. It was done on the end of the tool workshop at the monastery.
“the theme of the family camps 2002 was Annica – change .
“It says ‘fireman – the eye is burning…’ The fireman being a reference to the Buddha and the fire sermon which we must of spoke about [then]… it was a long time ago.
“The fireman – telling you how it is and following what the buddha is teaching and it will put the fire out! A fireman…Flames representing change…”
And there’s more, as Ven. kindly points out. The below shot is from a bunch found here, all the results of kids being egged on by Buddhist monks to do graffiti. What a world, huh?
What a great, it’s-actually-getting-better-all-the-time world.
