Teefury

A word from the curator:
Kevin is a real master of housepet propaganda! We're lucky to be able to bring you one of his finest pieces, Chairman Meow. If you like what you see here, check out his shop Obey the Purebreed!

Here's a sampling of a recent interview with Kevin:

How did you first come up with the concept of the Obey the Purebreed clothing line?
I came up with the idea about 6-7 years ago because of a Weimaraner that we had. She was really demanding, and had a way of controlling people when she wanted something. We found that it wasn’t possible to reason with her, so you had to obey what she told you to do.  That inspired me to do an illustration of her that was based on an old soviet propaganda poster.

Do you create all the art yourself? What is your creation process like?
Yeah, I do all of the designs, and I built the site as well. Really I just would find good photos of specific dog breeds and cats, and then find a way to show them as dictators by looking at old propaganda posters and postage stamps. The way that Shepard Fairey has remixed some of that old stuff was also an inspiration for style. He’s a great designer. Some of my designs could even be considered a parody of what he does.

Where do you see Obey the Purebreed headed in the future? In a perfect world, where would you like it to go?
Obeythepurebreed.com is a great creative outlet for me, and allows me to not depend on the ups and downs of freelance work to get by. I think for now it will continue to exist on that level, but there’s always the possibility of choosing some ideas or breeds to really expand on. In a perfect world I would turn Chairman Meow into a smaller version of what Paul Frank did with his monkey icon. Although, from what I understand, that venture didn’t end well so in a perfect world I would omit that part of it!

For the complete interview (including information on Kevin's experiences using DTG printing), click here.