Welcome to the new/updated site! The Archives and search function may look a bit different, but it is still the same good time. Since 2002, your old-school website for all things stencils. Please consider donating what you can to support the much-needed upgrade. Photo submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.

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Election Celebraton: 11,000 Pics Uploaded

Six years in, and the Stencil Archives just keep growing. As it turned out during the upload today, Cricket in AZ, shot by Moe Beitiks, had an upload that put the Archives at exactly 11,000! Hard to believe that they were at 8,000 when I started on Stencil Nation earlier this year.

Thanks again to all of the artists, photographers, and fans who keep sending me great works from around the world. I know I can't keep up with the likes of Flickr (322,000 "stencil" flicks there), but I'll keep posting as long as I keep finding and getting images.

Here's the current update, which will be the last one for a short bit.......

Got one sprayed in Brazil

A few from Australia by the artist LaWright

Another batch from South Carolina

Grabbed some pics offa FaceBook, with PIXNIT's permission

Jim in TN hooked me up with painted stencils, so I now have his cut outs and the pieces

Here's the Cricket batch from AZ, which took me to 11k

Left of 88 and Marc of the Covenant from NC get a new Artist Archive

David Drexler sent a few Election-Themed Chicago pieces over

And some small batches from: SF's SoMa, The Media Archive, Cross Bowed Lobster and Rumply Button in Ft Collins CO, Tucson, AZ, and North Cali (thanks XSacto)....

Come and visit me on tour! Can't wait to meetcha......

Paper Mag: Marc Schiller on Commerce

The Original Link to Paper Mag is Here

Marc's Original Wooster Post is Here

Props to Crystal for the tip

Last year Marc Schiller wrote a blog for his site WoosterCollective.com called "The Banksy Effect," in which he addresses the abrupt and remarkable changes that were taking hold in the London street-art scene. To Schiller, it appeared that after five years of just barely inching along, the market for street art in galleries had suddenly hit the roof, and the kinds of pieces that had gone unsold for years prior were selling at an insane rate and even crazier prices. Schiller could think to chalk it up to only one thing, or man, rather: Banksy, the Bristol-born stencil artist whose work went from streetscapes to auction house must-haves in a hot second, and who was fast becoming a major figure in the fine-art world.

"Soon after we published the blog, "Space Girl and Bird," a Banksy stencil created for a Blur CD cover sold at Bonhams auction house in London for $575,000 -- 20 times the estimate, making it the most expensive BANKSY ever sold at that time.

Back then, my thinking was that everyone was benefiting from this "Banksy Effect" -- artists, gallerists and collectors alike. But now things are a lot less clear. Still fueled largely by London-based buyers, the market for street art has in many ways become completely irrational.

Update: Stencil Nation Winter Tour Dates

The past few weeks has been a whirlwind of promotions here at the SC SN HQ. The Southeast dates proved to be a bit harder to pin down times and dates, but I think I finally have the whole tour schedule worked out (with a few starting times still lingering). The Northeast November leg is good to go, and the word is out online and in print. Just bought my ticket to Boston via SF and will probably buy my Amtrak ticket from DC to Charleston, SC soon. Wish the bus/train system was good down here in the Southeast. Will be in the car for that leg of the tour. What's brewing in the distant future? Well, if capitalism doesn't completely fail by January, I'll either do a California tour or a brief visit to Europe. Stay tuned for more details!

The Stencil Nation Tour Goes East This Winter 

November in the Northeast

  • Thanks for all the amazing support, hospitality, participation, and experiences!

December in the Southeast

More...

Cut and Paint #2 Out Now

 

Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, and Colin Matthes
Cut and Paint stencil template zine #2
$4
Buy it Here

Cut and Paint stencil template zine #2 is now available! The overwhelming demand for Cut and Paint #1 has encouraged us to more than double the print run. This time around we traded in the headaches of attempting to scam double-sided 11x17 photocopies for the impeccable offset printing provided by Eberhardt Press - an anarchist printer in Portland, Oregon.