Ken Harman Hashimoto of The Obama Art Report

Image: Work by Bask. Featured on Obama Art Blog  

Ken Hashimoto is the editor and mastermind behind the Obama Art Report blog. Hashimoto's blog has become a leading resource for documenting the largely guerilla, and street-influenced art inspired by the 2008 Presidential election.  Hashimoto lives and breathes street art and it was partly his love for the urban genre that compelled him to create this blog.  We live in a rapidly evolving social and political landscape and the work showcased on the Obama Art Report testify to the widespread artistic response in this period of dramatic transition. Hashimoto has graciously agreed to respond to some of my questions:

1) Tell me about yourself.  What do you do?  Do you have a background in art? 

My name is Ken Harman Hashimoto, until recently I was a wine-buyer for Whole Foods Market.  Currently I'm waiting tables a couple nights a week at a great restaurant in Oakland, Pizzaiolo.  The flexibility of this job for now is allowing me to spend more time working on the Art Report, after the election, I'll start pursuing some other endevors I've put on the back-burner the last few months.  I do have a little background in art; analog photography and sneaker customization mostly.

2) When did you start the Obama Art Report and what inspired you to do it?

The Art Report came to be sometime halfway through the primaries.  I'd always been a big fan of a lot of the artists who have been involved with the campaign, people like Shepard Fairey, Morning Breath, Sam Flores, David Choe, these were all artists whom I'd been following and appreciating long before the election season began.  As these and similar artists began creating works, one began to see it everywhere.  People on Flikr were photographing the street art they saw, individual artists began setting up online stores and posting works on their websites, while smaller do-it-yourself artists were putting items on their Etsy pages.  Larger companies like Obey Giant and Upper Playground were releasing prints and apparel on a now regular basis, and all of these were inextricably tied together with the eBay culture that was quickly blossoming up to provide a marketplace for it.  It didn't really sink in until late May, how big this was going to be.  By then we all had an inkling of how historic this election already was, but I don't think too many people were realizing yet how historically artistic this campaign was quickly becoming.  So I set up the site intending to document simply what I saw happening, while at the same time letting people know where they could get some of these works (especially for the best prices),.  Over time I began interviewing the artists,  starting building a following and one day the Wall Street Journal contacted me and it all sort of snowballed from there. 

A fair amount of the artists now contact me directly, they've heard of the site from friends or stumble across it on google.  There are a couple loyal readers out there who give me a heads up when they see something they think I might be interested in, and a lot of the content simply requires research, research, research.

4) Of the works you've featured on your blog, which ones are your favorite or most thought provoking and why?    

The street art will always hold a special place in my heart- For the last couple weeks, I've been following a local artist, "Eddie" around San Francisco as he puts up his political wheatpastes.  I also had the opportunity to interview Shepard Fairey, the godfather of American street art, both artists were videotaped and we're working on the editing right now.  Others that stand out for me are Zoltron (Bay Area), Ray Noland (Chicago), Billikid (NYC), Michael Murphy (Georgia) and ABCNT (LA).  Of course, the Upper Playground roster is a given as well.

5) What blogs/publications do you read and or recommend?

Changethethought.com, joyengine.com, woostercollective.com, http://stickemuphouston.blogspot.com/ are all favorites of mine and are all highly recommended.

**here's a video Hashimoto took with an SF based street artist!

http://www.obamaartreport.com/2008/10/obama-street-art.html

Be sure to check out the Obama Art Report and other resources recommended by Hashimoto--if you are looking for some limited edition artist prints and t-shirts check out the auction links on the blog.

***Thanks again to Ken Hashimoto!