Drawing on Obama's image

Arizona sculptor David Chalat replaced Thomas Jefferson with Barack Obama for a candle modeled after Mount Rushmore.

David Chalat, a sculptor from Sedona, Ariz., does a brisk business selling decorative soaps, and hasn't ventured far into the political arena before. But one day this spring, he came across the pro-Obama viral video created by singer will.i.am, and found a new source of inspiration. Before long, he had created a 5-inch-tall soap structure in Obama's likeness, along with a candle that places the Democratic candidate on Mount Rushmore, in place of Thomas Jefferson.

He posted both on the sell-your-crafts website Etsy.com, charging $20 for each. He hasn't had many takers. But he's not deterred. For him, Obama isn't a money-making opportunity so much as an artist's muse.

Over the course of the campaign, the Democratic nominee's image has fueled a string of commercial ventures, from an urban T-shirt business to a flurry of items on the sales site CafePress.com (which sells Obama-themed baby bibs and women's underwear). Obama's face was lionized in a series of posters by street-artist-gone-big-time Shepard Fairey, cofounder of an Obama-themed gallery exhibit outside the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

But the candidate has also inspired a range of wares from artists who lack famous names, and don't expect to earn big money for their work. On Etsy.com, a clearinghouse for handmade work, a search for "Obama" calls up nearly 1,000 items, from Obama-themed charm bracelets ($20-$30) to "Elitists for Obama" buttons ($2) to "Hope on a Rope" soap sculptures ($15). Artists say they're moved by many factors, from a fascination with Obama's physical appearance to a sense that the campaign tacitly approves.

The use of Obama as icon has left some critics grumbling; more than one conservative has noted that the Fairey posters, which were sold on the official Obama campaign website, are reminiscent of Cuban propaganda featuring revolutionary Che Guevara. Republican John McCain's campaign accuses Obama supporters of reacting more to style than substance.

But Chalat, 47, said he isn't drawn solely to the political stands or the celebrity endorsements.

"Barack's just got an incredibly challenging face for a sculptor," Chalat said. "His facial structure is such that his expressions really change his look."

Other grass-roots artists say they've used Obama's image or words almost involuntarily, as inspiration struck. One day earlier this year, after reading some vitriolic anti-Obama comments on a message board for glass blowers, Kansas City, Kan., glass artist Lisa Rippee, 46, went straight to her torch. She emerged a few hours later with a physical manifestation of her frustration: a red, white and blue glass vessel emblazoned with the words "Yes We Can." It's now on sale for $40 on Etsy.

"I needed to get to the torch and get some work done," Rippee said. "That was just in my brain. I just put my irritation into the glass."

For some artists, though, Obama wares have taken the place of - or added on to - other forms of activism. Fort Wayne, Ind., artist Pat Chesebrough and his wife have taken part in Obama phone banks, and canvassed door-to-door for the candidate. But they found an even more satisfying way to contribute, Chesebrough said, when they posted a $9.99 baby onesie on Etsy.com with the slogan, "I Need a Change."

Sales shot up. Someone from Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters even bought a few. So the Chesebroughs started to make Obama-themed T-shirts, including one for $14.99 that imagines Obama on the periodic table of elements. ("Ob: The Element of Change.") They pour their proceeds back into T-shirts, which they give out for free to supporters and volunteers and campaign events.

"We felt really good about that," said Chesebrough, 32. "We really racked our brains on 'How can we contribute some way other than financially?' "

Chesebrough said he contacted the Obama campaign to make sure it had no objections. And Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the campaign encourages grass-roots artists to use Obama's image - provided they keep things clean.

"We encourage our supporters to express their creativity, and to do so in a positive manner," Psaki wrote in an e-mail.

That sense of approval, along with the left-leaning nature of many artists, has spawned an explosion of Obama-related art, and a commingling of famous and not-so-famous artists. Thousands of grass-roots artists entered a competition last month to join the Manifest Hope Gallery, the temporary gallery in Denver that featured some big contemporary-art names, and was co-sponsored by the left-wing organization MoveOn.

Submissions for the contest, which was judged by a panel that included Fairey and musician Moby, ranged from Obama-themed Shrinky Dinks to sculptures made of butter, gallery spokesman Yosi Sergant said. And while the five winners were more-traditional posters and sculptures, the range of small-bore crafts featuring Obama seems to keep expanding - and drawing interest, if not sales. Chalat says Etsy page views of his Obama wares skyrocketed shortly after he posted pictures of them this summer, as word of mouth spread and people logged on to look.

Indeed, the craft-sales website functions as a sort of gallery, itself. Sara Doris, a Northeastern University art history professor who specializes in postmodern contemporary art, said she was particularly struck by a necklace made out of a pumpkin seed, which had been painted to look like Obama's face.

There are McCain items on Etsy, as well, including a 3-D glow-in-the-dark refrigerator magnet. But they number far fewer - 144 last week - and some of them are negative. Obama's Democratic competitors never spawned underground artists' movements. In part, that's because of Obama's youth and handsomeness, which comes across as hip and appealing, Doris said. And in part, she said, it's due to the campaign's embrace of high-tech culture, which dovetails with changes in the way people produce and sell their crafts. Much of the handmade art on Etsy, she noted, is created with the help of digitally altered pictures and images pulled off the Internet.

The Obama crafts also reflect a change in some artists themselves, who are venturing for the first time into political arenas, said Gretchen Keyworth, executive director and chief curator of the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton.

"A large percentage of craft artists now are working with concepts and ideas, and producing one-of-a-kind pieces that lend themselves to that kind of an issue, rather than throwing mugs off the hump," Keyworth said.

And some of those artists now say they have Obama-related ambitions that extend well beyond the use of pumpkin seeds and soap.

"If I were a wealthy man," said Chalat, the Arizona sculptor, "I'd love to do something monumental."

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.