FAQ
Q. Why do you make guerrilla street posters and run around in the middle of the night, putting them up in major cities all around the U.S.?
A. I do it because non-sanctioned street art is still, unfortunately, the most direct, unmediated form of public expression available to a pictorial artist in our cultural economy. Since I can’t afford to buy commercial TV, radio, internet banners or ads in newspapers and magazines to distribute my opinions about issues I care about: democracy, abuses of power by public officials, elected or otherwise—not to mention CEO’s of major corporations and financial institutions, etc. putting posters up in the streets enables me to express my 2 cents in public.
Q. Do you think this kind of political street art has any effect on people?
A. No, not in the sense of getting people to agree with me. Certainly that’s not why I make them and run around like a maniac in the middle of the night putting them up all over the streets. Quite honestly, it would be hubris for me to think my art could change anybody’s mind about issues they care about. My goal is simple: just to participate in the national dialogue. Oh—and, perhaps, to provide a little “counter-infotainment” to all the full blown rhetoric that’s dumped on us 24-7 through the media. Humor helps. Humor is my defense against despair. I try to use irony to make the posters less depressing than their subjects—to slip a wise crack about a politician and/or a public issue into the cityscape at eye level, beneath the blizzard of information that overwhelms us every time we go out to buy a quart of milk, or in my case, another dozen cans of cat food. My real goal is to tickle you into thinking along with me about public issues. It’s my way of participating in the public dialogue about social and political issues.
Q. Do you consider your street posters to be art, or graffiti?
A. Technically, no, they’re not made on the street like graffiti. But, in the stereotypically accepted societal definition, yes, guerrilla street posters are graffiti. Street art is still the most direct, unmediated form of public expression available to scruffy artist types (like myself) who want to express themselves in public about public issues. Remember, the word PUBLIC is inclusive—especially including people who don’t have a lot of money, the ability to go to museums, or even access to the internet. One thing about the STREET, people see your stuff (yes, even from their car windows), whether they want to or not. So, I make oil paintings and charcoal portraits of ugly old white guys in suits and ties who have too much power over us and abuse it in the name of representative democracy. When I’m sufficiently angry, anguished and lucky, I come up with a few words, maybe a phrase, for a title. Then I turn them into off-set litho posters, gather together an irregular army of guerrilla volunteers and head for the streets.
Q. What do you think of graffiti?
A. Graffiti is irrepressible. It bubbles up from the saddest, most broken turf in America, decorating the busted bubble—even mimicking the angular shapes of every urban ghetto’s crumbled infrastructure. Kids spitting consciousness that nobody in a management position in a major corporation could ever imagine. Why? Because our politicians, major corporations and financial institutions have—literally—abandoned them. (South Central Los Angeles seen from the air, as in the opening scene of Stacy Peralta’s 2008 documentary, “Crips and Bloods: Made in America,” looks exactly like an aircraft carrier with the bombed out rubble of Dresden filling its decks. Compared to the surrounding cityscape, there’s nothing there). I’ve been running the streets late at night for many years. Everywhere I go, all around the country, there are talented kids with little black sketch books in their backpacks. But they get no support for their self taught skills. We’ve lost a whole generation of talented artists to the cultural dumbing down of our public schools. In my opinion it has afflicted the most naturally gifted artists in the hood with a form of pyrotechnical autism. They’re effectively rendered invisible, so they repeat themselves on the same walls (barriers) over and over again. This is tragic. Worse. It’s criminal. And it isn’t the kids who are guilty of the crime.
Q. How do you think up your poster ideas?
A. I make art about issues that I care about, which becomes a sort of minor “character assassination,” of people whom I think have abused their power (in relation to those issues). I can get all cantankerous quacking about them, my indignation tending to bend the language, occasionally getting it to release its madly creative colloquial power into a great title for a poster. Colloquial American slang has a startling capacity to turn “correct” grammar and syntax inside-out and shake it for loose change. As I might have heard myself–the poser–say, back in the day, “that’s dope!”
Q. How much does it cost to print your posters? How many do you print? Where do you get them printed?
A. That depends on whether they’re 4-color, or black and white, as well as the quality and size of the paper we print on. The latest poster we printed is black and white, much less expensive than full color. It’s 36″x24.” If you stick with 24”x18” you can print them “2-up.” That’s 2 posters to 1 sheet of paper, which cuts your paper costs in half. Printing @2,000, the black and white posters run about .70 cents each, at that volume and size. The more you print, the lower the per-poster price. But printing isn’t the only cost of the process. Supplies for the guerrilla postering troops like glue and brushes, prep work on the art itself, art supplies, are all rolled into the total cost of each project. Then there’s travel expenses getting to and from major cities around the US where we put up posters… Typecraft, Inc, in Pasadena, CA has been printing my street posters since 1990.
Q. Do you still go out and put them up yourself?
A. Yes actually, I do. The activity itself is kind of addictive, truthfully. We always meet up in a public space. A restaurant or coffee lounge for example. I like it that way, you know: art for and with the people. In LA it’s Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. In Washington DC, it’s usually Busboys and Poets on 14th and V. I never really know who’ll show up to volunteer to go out postering in the middle of the night, but I’m always happily surprised. Even after 25 years of doing this, just seeing them come bouncing into our section of the deli is a thrill. They’re so jazzed up for it—and they’re such a cross section of our people: artists, musicians, writers, lawyers (yes, lawyers!), teachers, students, parents and their children (Family Values!), actors, directors, and even Hollywood talent agents. I just try to come through for them, giving them “Guerrilla Etiquette” tips and making the experience of going postering as positive and bonding as possible. And I always worry about them out there in the streets. Always.
Q. Did you invent “Guerrilla Marketing”?
A. I’ve been accused of it, but no, I can only wish. Unfortunately, the combination of having parents who were both labor union organizers (communists) and being an original Hippie in San Francisco (yes, LSD and all that “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,”) pretty much knocked any entrepreneurial spirit right out of me. I’m terrible at that stuff.
Q. Do you do movie advertising posters, commissions for businesses and/or political non-profit organizations?
A. I have reluctantly done some. Though I’ve enjoyed the team creative process, sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t translate. One important element of what I do—and how I do it—is that it’s an “unmediated” form of public expression. Even with some organizations that I truly admire, problems (differences of opinion, tactical and otherwise), can crop up over content and/or ways to approach a controversial topic. Needless to say, I can be too much of a wise guy. And they can be prone to having second thoughts about our chosen—slightly illegal—means of distribution! But my graphic designer wife, Deb and I have had some wonderful experiences as well. Planned Parenthood of So. Cal called us cold. Spearheaded by the great Mary Jane Wagle, we had a fine time doing “FREEDOM FROM CHOICE” posters and a billboard with them. We did “LITTLE WHITE LIES (Jesse Helms)”, with Pearl Jam in 1996. I went to North Carolina for their show and to help them poster 4 cities there as well. I was also very happy to collaborate with the LA chapter of the ACLU on a street poster and bus shelter campaign, “SOONER OR LATER: Everyone needs the ACLU.”
I did a “teaser” street poster for an indie movie, “Steal This Movie” about Abbie Hoffman, and one for the film “Fast Food Nation,” based on the book by Eric Schlosser. Also “WAR, Inc.” a verrry indie anti-war movie. I’ve done posters expressly for inclusion within movies like “Bob Roberts,” and “Contagion.” Though I don’t have an agent or anyone drumming up business for me, several movies have used my posters as “set dressing.” Notably, “Sneakers,” “Falling Down,” “The Player,” “Definitely, Maybe,” and “The Insider,” That’s a goofy pleasure, for sure.
Q. Do you know Shepard Fairey?
A. Yes, I do know Shepard Fairey and I believe he’s a good (and talented) guy. By the way, he’s also still out there on the streets doing it himself—always getting up!
Q. How can I do something like this myself? Can I sign up to go postering with you?
A. I can’t get to every city–or even my own–as much I used to or would like to, but if you are seriously interested in going out with a crew or two in your home town, please let me know. We’ll send you the necessary Guerrilla Etiquette tips to follow whether you want to put up mine, or you’ve got your own posters! Please do sign up for news and email alerts here at this website.
Thanks,
–Robbie Conal
