The last time, it was locally based artist Shepard Fairey. This time, it's the Coachella Valley natives Carlos Ramirez and Armando Lerma, known as The Date Farmers.
Upper Playground, a San Francisco based online store and collective of artists, has asked the Date Farmers to create a campaign poster to be mass-distributed on offset posters throughout Texas prior to the primary on March 4th. "For too long we have been plagued by mediocrity and incompetence at the Executive level. As an international company, we feel that it is time to support a candidate that truly embodies the American spirit in both his campaign and his ideologies," the online store said in a statement.
Named after their fathers who were both date farmers, the duo of pop-heritage artists explore early Southwest art and California's past and present via images that are reminiscent of Mexican Revolutionary posters (think Pancho Villa). The Date Farmers' poster will not be widely for sale like Fairey's, which became ubiquitous on Los Angeles traffic control boxes this past month. For now, 300 limited-edition copies of the poster signed and numbered by the artists available ($200 each) are available via Upper Playground with the proceeds going back to more posters and stickers by other artists creating advocacy art for the Obama campaign.
