Shepard Fairey – Street Artist, Graffitist, Building Owner, Protectionist.

Uh oh. There’s a little local tiff brewing that’s sort of interesting – or not. Seems that Shepard Fairey – you know the guy who did the Obama “Hope” poster that went viral? – has recently sand-blasted his brick gallery building in Echo Park to clean off all the accumulated graffiti and then covered it with a coat of protective sealant to prevent future attacks – uh, I mean, artwork – from damaging his bricks.

So The Eastsider reported on that with the headline “This is one wall Shepard Fairey wants to keep free of self-expression.” Well, it seems Shepard was not so pleased with the article. He responded to The Eastsider telling them he thinks their post was “very obnoxious” and then dares them to divulge their “home and office address as an invitation for people to display their art there.” Yikes. The comments on his response post are priceless. Ah, artists. Can’t we all just get along?

But maybe another issue here is that The Eastsider needs to figure out where Echo Park really is. I’m with Patt Morrison on this one – the Eastside is east of the L.A. River – you know, Boyle Heights, County/USC, El Sereno, East L.A. – ever been to those parts of town? You can go there now (or soon, anyway) on the Gold Line – it’s safe. West Sunset Blvd. runs through Echo Park. Yes, I know - it feels all hip and trendy to be on the edgy side of town, away from all those horrible Westsiders. But let’s not play with the compass. And let’s give the real Eastsiders their due.