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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Quick Note About Stencil Uploads

Greetz from Chicago. I am currently on the road with the wild and wooley Sustainable Living Roadshow via a caravan of bio-fueled buses and trucks. I have barely had time to keep up with the many carny tasks that fall into my lap every day, let alone sit down with a powered laptop and wifi to upload photos and submissions. Our culture is positively a vampire to the power lines and I've spent most of the past month with juiced-out tech and am sharing a Verizon wifi modem with 18 other people.

So be patient friends. Uploads to the Stencil Archive will begin again in early October.

Keep your ears out for more info on a Stencil Nation Nov/Dec book tour as well. Cities will include: Boston, Providence, NYC, Baltimore, DC, Asheville, Atlanta, and a few other dates for fun!

Thanks for you patience. I am trying to blog about this crazy circus tour over on Happy Feet if you care to follow along. And I am finding stencils here and there when I run across them!

Sep. 13: Shepard Fairey SF Exhibit

Over 100 pieces will go on display at White Walls in a timely new show titled "The Duality of Humanity." The show marks an evolution for the artist, whose unique form of reverse propaganda emerged from the spirit of the punk movement. With this show, Shepard touches upon, but also goes beyond the 'calls to action' against mindless consumerism and war evidenced in previous shows like Nineteeneightyfouria, E Pluribus Venom and Imperfect Union. "The difference between this show and the previous ones is that now the optimism of a potential  Obama presidency is in the mix," Shepard said. His recent work reflects his own personal shift towards a new optimism, a direct result of his involvement with, and inspiration by, the powerful political ideals of Barack Obama.

The title of the show, "The Duality of Humanity," is inspired by the peace-sign wearing US soldier in Vietnam, 'Joker,' in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Fairey sees a strong parallel between the Vietnam war and the Iraq war. Fairey says that this show addresses  the "human struggle between good and bad, hope and fear". One of the show's central pieces is a child with a gun in his hand and a flower in his hat. The theme of soldiers and weapons bearing peace signs, or peace signs comprised of military effects, runs through many pieces in the show. Environmental themes also appear in some pieces, illustrating the tenuous balance between our dangerously uncontrolled consumption of non-renewable resources, and our well intentioned eco-concerns. Suffering and hope are seamlessly merged in a visual mash-up that defies expectations and easy answers.

"The Duality of Humanity" includes larger mixed media pieces on canvas and paper that have been covered with carefully collaged ephemera, self-printed patterns and found clippings from printed media. The backgrounds provide a seductive painterly texture and visual subtext, often allowing apropos words and images to bleed through the iconic images printed and painted over them. The multiple layers create a sense of depth, but also bring in temporal elements through preserved newsclippings, historic images and vintage printing effects. It is the images in the foreground, however, that give the work its power. They are crisp and provocative, communicating in a way that is direct and clear.

"The Duality of Humanity" by Shepard Fairey opens to the public Saturday, September 13th 2008. Runs through October 4th. For more information and images visit www.whitewallssf.com.

Location: White Walls
835 Larkin Street
SF CA. 94109
(415)931-1500

Sep. 11: Stencil Art Show: SF

From Crystal Townsend:

so i know it's kinda late notice, but I'm part of a stencil installation at this interior design firm in the 2 harrison building (hills plaza, right off the embarcadero).  anyhow, it was 5 stencilers, one muralist, and an art collective involved.  the opening for the show is on thursday 9/11 at 5:30 pm.  i'll be doing some live art as well (rollers, no montana this time around...) and THE TAMALE LADY IS CATERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  but yeah, i'd love to see ya.  unfortunately i don't have jpgz of the flier :( but feel free to holler at me and come out.  so again, thurs. 9/11 @5:30 p.m.  2 Harrison, 3rd and 4th floors.

Stencil History X Tour: UK

THE STENCIL HISTORY X TOUR COMES TO UK

INK-D GALLERY
96 North Rd
BRIGHTON
BN1 1YE
4th - 28th September
http://www.ink-d.co.uk

Original works from C215, fellow French stenciller Sadhu and three quite amazing US artists - Adam5100, Broken Crow and Koleszar - are taking over Ink_d to showcase the re-written rules on stencil art.

A short selection of other artists from the book is presented as well.

Mid August Photo Uploads

This upload is for my dad, Townes (1941-2008)

RIP to my hero, the funniest man I ever met!

Here's the last batch from Melbourne

And the photos that I took at the Melbourne Stencil Festival before the trip suddenly ended (sorry for not covering the show completely)

David Drexler dropped off another large batch of Madison, WI street work

New and updated artist archives from:

Archive Updates from:

San Francisco Updates:

As my pops would say, "gettin' it done!"

Nowhere to Paint, Nowhere to Learn

Nowhere to Paint, Nowhere to Learn (Find Original Article Here)
Posted By: Jason Youmans
07/30/2008 8:00 AM

By cracking down on street art of all sorts, has the city lost a valuable tool in the battle against bad graffiti?

As Monday learned after publishing a recent editorial in defense of graffiti, it seems no one in Victoria likes the lowly tagger. But in a city quick to buff the first sign of unsolicited spray paint from its walls while offering no alternative for budding Banksys* to feed their egos and make their names known, the Garden City is setting itself up for a tourism-dependent town’s worst nightmare—an endless cycle of really crappy graffiti.

Monday recently caught up with a decade-long veteran of the local aerosol art community to talk about the city’s graffiti scene, why there are so many trashy tags and what happens when there’s no place for people to hone their skills without fear of getting cuffed by the cops. For obvious reasons, he wishes to remain anonymous, so we’ll call him Rusto—after a paint popular among that set.