Artists join the crush of street peddlers offering souvenirs

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 27, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Ken Papaleo / The Rocky

Alyssa Zeller holds an Obama action figure for sale on the 16th Street Mall on Monday. More than 680 people applied for peddler's licenses for the week of the Democratic convention.

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More than 680 people applied for peddler's licenses to sell their wares during the DNC this week, according to the city of Denver, compared to 80 during last year's World Series. Some of the vendors are artists and entrepreneurs who designed their souvenirs themselves. Here are profiles of three:

* Jason Feinberg designed and sold whimsical action figures like Che Guevara, Beethoven and Malcolm X for three years as a sideline while he worked as a English as a second language teacher.

Then Barack Obama changed his life.

Feinberg, who founded Jailbreak Toys, started churning out the Barack Obama figure as soon as the Illinois Senator won the Iowa caucus this January. The $13 doll turned into an immediate hit, and soon Jailbreak was supplying the toy to Urban Outfitters, Borders and selling it online.

Feinberg brought 5,000 of the dolls with him from his home in Brooklyn to Denver, where he and his girlfriend, Alyssa Zeller, are selling them in a cart across the street from Writer's Square. The dolls sold well enough to allow him to quit his teaching job in June and devote himself full time to the business.

"I often think how strange it is to have my fortune tied to someone I've never met," said Feinberg, 31.

Feinberg is donating $1 to the Obama campaign for every doll that Jailbreak sells - until Jailbreak hits the campaign contribution limit of $2,300.

Jailbreak also makes a McCain action figure, but only because one of his retail clients said it couldn't sell the Obama doll without providing bipartisan balance. Feinberg has no plans to set up shop at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul next week, however.

"It just wouldn't feel right," he said.

* Manuel Burgos-Trujillo is a linguist, and his girlfriend Kristen Sanderson an artist. They never had occasion to combine their talents until the Obama campaign.

The Albuquerque couple collaborated on a new company called Obamistic Postcards. The company sells postcards and posters, including one of Obama silhouetted against the text of his Philadelphia speech on race and a portrait of the candidate framed by the phrase "unity in diversity" in nine languages.

"I'm a huge Obama fan," Burgos-Trujillo said, explaining why they created the posters. They plan to donate any profits they make to the Obama campaign, and their Web site - obamistic.com - also directs supporters to the Obama site to make further contributions.

Burgos-Trujillo brought 700 postcards, sold in five-card packs for $10, and 100 posters, which sell for $5, to Denver. He hopes to sell his entire inventory while posted outside the Convention Center downtown and will continue to sell them online after the convention.

* Steve Lowtwait for years designed vintage-style posters for travel and ski industry clients. Obama's campaign prompted the Boulder artist to venture into political paraphernalia for the first time.

Lowtwait drew up a portrait of Obama set against a vibrant blue background, next to the quote "My job is not to represent Washington to you - but to represent you to Washington."

The 16 x 20 inch poster sells for $30, and the T-shirt reproduction, $20. Lowtwait donates 5 percent of the purchase price to the Obama campaign, and so far has raised $147, according to his website.

Lowtwait, who is self-employed, is spending the week outside the convention center selling his wares. After the convention, they'll continue to be sold online and he hopes to convince some Boulder retailers to display the shirts and posters.

"I could have just donated time or money but my best offer is my talent as a poster designer," he said.

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