“Welcome to the No Regrets Lounge, the only progressive art space in the otherwise overwaxed landscape of Beverly Hills,” said Stephen Webster as he walked past a canvas depicting a post-apocalyptic Hello Kitty at his Rodeo Drive jewelry boutique on Tuesday, February 4. The image of the skeletal cat with bright red Terminator eyes (and trademark white ears adorned with a pink flower) called Good Bye Kitty 02 set the tone for an evening discussion between its creator Dean Stockton (known as DFace) and Shepard Fairey. Webster, the evening’s host, served as moderator for the event that also marked the launch of a series of dogtag pendant necklaces, a jewelry collaboration between DFace and Webster. The three creatives toasted Stockton’s new book, The Art of DFace: One Man and His Dog (Laurence King Publishing), that includes a forward by Fairey. Below, an excerpt of the repartee between the street artists and Webster:

By Elizabeth Varnell

Webster: Skateboarding and punk music inspire your work. How did those recreational pursuits lead to a life of crime and street art?
Fairey: I grew up in South Carolina. I didn’t know why I was unhappy, but I knew I was and this gave me a target for all that anger. I’ve been arrested 16 times for street art, but my first arrest was for skateboarding. I was detained for fireworks—another Southern pursuit—prior to that.

DFace: My dad bought me a skateboard when I was six. It was plastic and it was shit. After Back to the Future, I wanted a wood skateboard. I went to get one in my school uniform, which I regret to this day. And I got Thrasher magazine, it was like this bible for me.

Webster: Talk about your sense of humor.
DFace: I never went out to be an artist or took myself seriously. I wanted to get my stuff out into the public domain. You have to have fun with the public—I printed real 10-pound notes with my art.

Fairey: Humor is a great subversive delivery vehicle. I’m very skeptical of people without a sense of humor.

Webster: Mick Jones of The Clash is one of my best friends. You both have mentioned that you’re fans of the band.
Fairey: The energy of the music drew me to it. They were politically engaged and embraced being open to any creative outlet and were against the status quo. They hung out with Grandmaster Flash and Chic.

DFace: I was drawn to the do-it-yourself mentality; defining what you do with how you do it.

Webster: When is permanence attractive?
Fairey: There’s a need to share your work at any cost. But after putting up thousands of posters and stickers, it’s more that I think I’ve practiced what I do for 20 years and I think it should last longer than a week. Is that okay? Am I a dick?

DFace: If you’re a hustler, you hustle. That’s unique to our art. No other medium allows someone else to paint over art work. You’re trying to make your work permanent in an impermanent society.

Webster: People ask how much you’re getting paid to paint.
Fairey: The payment is I’m not getting arrested.

 

Pictured: Stephen Webster and Shepard Fairey
Photo by Ari Perilstein

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