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We took a long break from the Stencil Archive updating project. It is a bit too tedious, and hand-crampingly painful, to crank out in one go. The most active Archives have been updated (for this current round: fnnch, Eclair, Eon75, Jeremy Novy), and we do update an Archive if there's a new image to go in. This week focused on "let's make a dent in the San Francisco Stencil Archives", so we took a flashback trip down the years, which included all of our exhibits and art shows. FYI, the image sizes are smaller because hosting size was pricey 20 years ago!

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The Stencil Archive-produced Negative Spaces exhibit Archive is updated, along with Russell "Klutch" Short's 2005 SF Vinyl Killers Archive. Negative Spaces inspired Klutch to start the Vinyl Killers project, and Stencil Archive was at the SF opening with our digital camera out. We have already updated Klutch's personal site, but just added text from his online obituary. We also added text and updated obituary text to James Sellier's Archive. James was always a light and fun presence back in those heady "street art" days. We sometimes miss his humor and thoughtful stencil work. 

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Then we headed over to the SF Artists Archives and started A-Z. This current update's effort ends with the letter K. Some great browsing this week includes Claude Moller, Craig McPhee, Hole in the Head, and Kate DeCiccio. 

We're hoping to get through the rest of the SF artist Stencil Archives this spring, and look forward to checking out these dusty corners where some of the artists hit the streets decades ago. After that, the EU zones artist Archives remain the last section of the site to update. New uploads keep happening in real time, so no need to trip backwards to stay fresh. xoxo....

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The Story Behind Sydney’s ‘Eternity’ Graffiti
​Kaushik Patowary, AmusingPlanet

For over twenty five years, from 1930 to 1956, the people of Sydney woke up each day to a one-word sermon—”Eternity”—handwritten in yellow crayon on footpaths, train station platforms, and perimeter walls lining the city’s many walkways and streets. Each day a fresh batch of graffiti rendered in beautiful copperplate lettering style  would appear at places where there weren’t any the previous night. Somehow, for twenty five years, a mysterious figure had managed to sneak into the city every night and leave his presence on the city’s walls and sidewalks. It attracted the ire of Sydney City Council at first, but as the weeks become months, and the months became years, the “Eternity” graffiti became an iconic symbol of the city. Pedestrians stepped around and over the words, and street sweepers and cleaners left the elegant writings untouched.

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...it is a beautiful night out there in Los Angeles (Soul Coughing). A recent quick trip to Hollywood this past weekend means a batch of stencils from LA, with two thrown in from the gracious BeneRegoef. Since LA has billboards the size of skyscrapers, we are not surprised that most of the stencils we discovered were ads for music releases and other products. There were some creative ones thrown in, especially a utility box painted by Ricardo Tomasz near the Hollywood Bowl. For such a quick trip, Hollywood sidewalks have more that stars on them.

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Today is the day to ask those you love if you have a plan. It can be for hurricanes, ICE raids, or tornadoes. Here in San Francisco, the 1906 earthquake destroyed a huge portion of the City on April 18. Three huge fires destroyed even more and about 3,000 died from the disaster.

Have a plan! Discuss with room-mates, loved ones, coworkers. There's a disaster kit just down the hall from here. If you feel a large earthquake, get under something and hold on.

With the serious part done, click on through to some recent SF/415 stencil photos.

• Divisadero St.
• Fillmore St. (thanks, EG)
• Financial District
• Mission District (thanks, Josiah)
• Sunset Dunes
• Protest signs
• Tenderloin/Van Ness

Frankie Says.... Sock it to me biscuits, now!

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‘They act with total impunity’: Paris city hall declares war on graffiti vandals 
Officials promise to track down and prosecute those who ‘tag’ city’s historic monuments, statues and grand buildings 

Kim Willsher for The Guardian (LINK), April 17, 2025 

In Paris’s central Place de la République, the magnificent lions at the feet of the statue of Marianne are once again covered in graffiti. 

Along the nearby Boulevard Saint-Martin – part of the Grands Boulevards that bisect the north of the city – the trunk of every plane tree has been crudely sprayed with a name. 

The front of majestic stone apartment buildings, some dating back more than 200 years, are similarly “tagged” with stylised initials or names. So are the benches, flower boxes, front doors, post boxes and the plinth under the bust of the half British 19th-century playwright Baron Taylor. In fact, anything that does not move has been tagged. 

Now Paris city hall has declared war on the vandals and promised to track them down, prosecute and seek fines for some of the estimated €6m (£5.1m) of damage they cause every year. 

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Protecting Art in the Street (Dokument Press) explains, with words and images, how copyright laws apply to street art and graffiti, and how they can be of help to creators within these artistic communities. Knowledge about these issues does matter. There has recently been a spike in legal actions or complaints against corporations and individuals that have tried to exploit commercially street artworks without the artists’ consent; and more importantly without sharing with them any profit. Also, legal actions have been brought by street artists to fight destruction of their pieces.

By adopting a simple language, Protecting Art in the Street constitutes an easy-to-understand guide aimed at navigating street artists and graffiti writers through otherwise difficult and intricate legal issues concerning the protection of their artistic outputs.

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Thanks to: Amanda; BeneRegoef; cattywampus08; LinuxLaser; Louniki; Josiah

Spinning: Clipping "Dead Channel Sky"

• AR Argentina
• AT Austria
• Banksy
• C215
• ES Spain
• FR Paris
• GR Greece
• Stencils in media
• IT ITaly

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What better way to ride this week's chaos than with some artist-credited stencils and some serious live space rock flows from legendary Hawkwind? Ride the waves like the Silver Surfer!

• C215 gets it
• Eclair is still hustling
• Eon75's pattern cut outs continue
• fnnch's AI or Not project
• Supercreate on another utility box
• 1947 French art stencils

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West Coast :: Left Coast :: Best Coast (free jazz by Trane in Japan)

• Anti-Trump in Chinatown
• Hummingbirds appear on Geary St.
• BeneRegoef does LA
• fnnch does AI
• Josiah snaps a cheeky one in the Mission