Why Detroit targeted famed graffiti artist Shepard Fairey

Felony charges and an especially high bond amount for world-renowned street artist Shepard Fairey are justified, given his track record and the mess he left here, Detroit officials say.

Wheat paste, a glue used to stick posters illegally across East Jefferson and in downtown, Midtown and the New Center areas doesn't respond well to graffiti-removal tools. In fact, crews couldn't get it off of at least one building on Jefferson.

"They attempted to remove it but became concerned it could do damage to the brick," said Melvin Butch Hollowell, corporation counsel for the city. "So they painted over it."

He said at least 18 sites have been verified as tagged by Fairey, and more charges are possible as the city continues to investigate what is believed to be at least $9,000 and as much as $30,000 in damage. The verification involved looking at what Fairey has posted online as well as other photos and the materials used, Hollowell said.

Fairey has also been previously arrested on similar charges as many as 18 times across the United States, Hollowell said. He added that this could be the first time the charges were felonies, "which is why we believe that we have his attention, finally."

Rick Manore, founder of the now-closed CPop Gallery, said the artist was simply playing the role of the tortured artist as a marketing strategy to increase his street credibility and polish his image as an pseudo-outlaw.

"This is exactly what he wants," said Manore, whose gallery exhibited Fairey's work in Detroit a little over a decade ago. "He wears his warrants on his sleeve like badges of honor. He's using the judicial system and the media to market himself. It's a minor investment and in return his name stays relevant. He's been doing this for years, and he's great at it."

Fairey was arraigned Tuesday on felony charges that he illegally tagged public and private property in the city. His bond was set at 10% of $75,000, and he was released later that day.

The 45-year-old, Los Angeles-based artist is best known for his signature Andre the Giant pieces and the "Hope" campaign poster for President Barack Obama.

Fairey was invited here in May to paint the largest mural of his career, an 18-story painting on One Campus Martius for Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services and others. Fairey told the Free Press before arriving that he still makes street art without permission and that he intended to do unauthorized work in Detroit during his visit.

Now he faces two counts of malicious destruction of a building between $1,000 and $20,000, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail, plus fines that could exceed $10,000.

It appears all the graffiti involved the wheat paste posters, and many included black-and-white depictions of Andre the Giant. Fairey can be seen in a Youtube video from November 2012 showing how to make the paste, and investigators have seen it.

Hollowell said the paste is more difficult to remove than normal graffiti, and it takes more time and effort to get it off. A graffiti-removal product called Elephant Snot usually works to pull down unwanted taggings when applied and followed up with a hot-water blast, he said.

"But the graffiti that's made with this wheat compound is much more difficult to remove, and in some ways is impervious to the Elephant Snot," Hollowell said.

The well-known Detroit street artist known as Fel3000FT noted that it's still not immediately clear if Fairey committed the crimes.

"Fairey is one of those guys known for just giving people art, and that's one way he built his career – by giving people his work, who put it up for him because they liked his stuff," he said. "Unless the police have got Fairey videotaped doing it, I don't know that he did."

Still, even if Fairey didn't physically paste his work on the buildings himself, he might be culpable if others did so at his direction, and Fairey will also have to explain his earlier public comments about his intent to do street work in Detroit without permission.

The high-profile case is one of about eight to 10 graffiti-related cases involving other defendants that the city is targeting. Doug Baker, attorney for the city of Detroit and a retired Wayne County prosecutor, said he's taking graffiti cases through an arrangement with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.

He said the city is working to "vigorously" enforce laws against defacing property. Asked what Baker thinks of people treating Detroit as a place they can get away with graffiti, he replied:

"That is an attitude that we run into, because we get people coming into the city that view it as a free-fire zone, that view at as a place where no one cares," Baker said. "And that's what we'er changing. We're changing that culture of belief."

Watch on Periscope: Free Press Reporter Robert Allen speaks with Shepard Fairey's attorney in Detroit.

Last week, Fairey was arrested in Los Angeles because of the Detroit warrant while he was trying to re-enter the country. But because authorities here opted not to extradite him, he was released. Fairey took a flight from Los Angeles to Detroit on Monday evening.

Approached after the flight, Fairey declined to speak on the issue: "Can't talk about anything," he said.

He didn't speak at his arraignment Wednesday morning, and his attorney, Bradley Friedman, declined to comment on the charges other than to say he turned himself in.

The next steps in the case against Fairey include a probable cause conference set for 8:30 a.m. July 21 in 36th District Court and a preliminary hearing on July 28.

Police previously said when Fairey was in Detroit, he vandalized at least nine different locations by pasting posters that included his signature image of Andre the Giant. Two locations were city-owned property, authorities said.

Staff writers Ann Zaniewski, Mark Stryker, Gina Damron and Editor Steve Byrne contributed to this report.

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