I originally made the Monkey Pod image based on a tree on the grounds of The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, where I completed a residency back in 2005. I was presented with a unique conundrum: Hawaii doesn’t have outdoor advertising, which my street art was designed to compete with and make people question. After visiting Hawaii, I realized that the primary form of propaganda was not advertising but the clichés of Hawaii itself: Coke machines have palm trees instead of Coke logos on them, phone booths have floral patterns running down the side, and everyone wears Aloha shirts. All the clichés of Hawaii’s picturesque beauty are perpetuated to encourage tourism. However, for once, I got to make art that was decorative, beautiful, and a celebration of nature while still incorporating my iconography in a conceptually, if not visually incongruous, way.
– Shepard
