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Decided to update Xavi's Stencil Archive this morning after seeing his "Tetris House" in the media streams yesterday. Not sure if he and his crew used stencils and cut paper to paint this house, but it is always possible. Open to sharing knowledge and tools, Xavi has been an inspiration for what can be done with negative space. Not only does he work with obvious patterns, Xavi also works with angles, lines, and simple shapes to make wild backgrounds behind repeated applications that create even wilder front matter on his walls. It is fascinating to watch him at work. Stencil Archive has stopped by his walls whenever able, because Xavi always has interesting stories, great tips, and general good cheer for talking about dreams, art (including graffiti), stencils, murals, and the biz.

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Had a bit of fun strolling down through history with the South of Market (SoMa) and Financial District archive while it was being updated. With banks, government buildings, the Israeli consulate, and other spots that demand to be spoken to, the streets have something to say in SF's "downtown". This archive also includes Union Square, Jackson Square, Market Street, and the Embarcadero, tony locations where tourists visit and consumerism rules. Sure, things are down around this part of SF, but it hasn't been down for the first time. And it may not make a difference with illegal works. Advertisements pop up along with protest stencils. Some artists roll through to get up in this part of town. And stickers tend to run on signs here, making it a decent, and somewhat surprising spot, to stare at some street art.

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Believe what you want about the Tenderloin, and its surrounding neighborhoods, but know that this neighborhood is one of the most affordable parts of San Francisco. And it has many protected buildings that house all sorts of interesting people. Murals are on the walls now, but it was mostly graffiti, stencils, and posters up until galleries and organizations went large on the walls. 

The Tenderloin - Civic Center Stencil Archive is updated, and includes new images. Just so you all know, this archive also keeps images from Union Square, Polk Street, Van Ness Ave., and Mid-Market. I have walked through the TL many times (and gave tours through it for about five years), and though grim and sad at times, I have found stencils and interesting walls to look at.

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Fresh images for the end of your weekend:

• The Legend: John Fekner (Updated Archive)
• Banksy Hates Me (thanks, Jeremy Novy)
• Jeremy Novy (just one)
• Peat EYEZ (just Grateful Dead)
• Vanessa Platacis

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The past several weeks, Logan Hicks has been going through his personal image archives on social media, giving us an opportunity to get refreshed with his earlier works. He has also written great accounts of collabs, experiences, travels, and process. We even downloaded some missed pics, and took the opportunity to update Hicks' Stencil Archive. He hasn't gone back to the very beginning yet, but we have it all here from as far back as 2003!

Before he made a huge splash with his very large, photo-realistic architectural/street scene stencils, Hicks was cranking out sneaker images, portraits, and even a few sidewalk works. Some of Logan's first images here on Stencil Archive were credited to Workhorse in Los Angeles before contact was made and his personal archive was created. 

His fascination with patterns was there at the beginning: just look at his sneaker series from 2003. Hicks quickly began experimenting with buildings and street scenes back in 2003. The scaling up in size of his work soon followed, along with incredible depth and detail advancements.

Many people make photo-realistic stencils, but Logan Hicks pioneered the style, and cut it all by hand! When we met him in his Brooklyn apartment while working on the "Stencil Nation" book project around 2008, he reminded me that he was bleeding edge for this style of stencils since it was easy to forget this. There is no denying that Logan Hicks is the master of the multi-layered photo stencil style, and any chance to see his work live is worth the effort.

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Just your old-school stencil update for today. Music: more good ole' cassette tape bootlegs.

• >NEW< PZY (UK) (thanks, billywills)
• >NEW< Vale (FR) (thanks, billywills)
• ELK (just one)
• JPS (thanks, billywills)
• Australia (just one: thanks, Everything4Everyone)
• Greece (thanks, Everything4Everyone)
• France (just one; thanks, Eva Reichmuth)
• Switzerland (Archive Updated, one new one)
• Spain (Free Palestine! Thanks, Amanda)
• UK (thanks, billywills)

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While updating full archives can take hours, new uploads continue to roll out in the other areas where things are new wave. This weekend, we have added to the new:

• >NEW< Brent Houzenga (New Orleans)... thanks for tip off, Jeremy Novy
• Praxis (thanks to Brooklyn Street Art)
• fnnch still knocking out the honey bears
• and NYC for good measure (gracias, BSA)

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The Stencil Archive for the Sunset and Richmond Districts, along with Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park, has been updated. A fair amount of images were pulled from the Other Locales archive into the Westside SF collection, especially the ones snapped in Golden Gate Park. Some Geary Blvd. images are in this archive as well, because Geary Blvd. runs through many neighborhoods all the way to the western edge of the City in the Richmond District. For non-locals, San Franciscans call the northern district above GG Park The Richmond to not confuse it with the city of Richmond in East Bay. You will still overhear people ask "THE Richmond?" during conversations, so it stays as confusing as South City (the city of South San Francisco) and the Southern part of the City (San Francisco)! 

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The newly-updated Other San Francisco Locales archive has been a catch-all for the neighborhoods that do not have enough image files to get their own archive. Or perhaps these neighborhoods are distinct and spread outside the other archives that have developed over the years. Fort Mason, the Marina, Chinatown, North Beach - all are included in the Other archive.

Over the years, some images end up getting moved, like they did during this update. Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach eventually moved to the Sunset and Richmond Districts archive, because it makes sense geographically. Many images moved to the Western Addition archive after the logical path that that archive should encompass USF, Lone Mountain, NoPa, etc.

The Other archive also includes photos from San Francisco that may not have a specific location attached. Where exactly was that String Cheese Incident road case stencil photo taken? The 1997 David Solnit poster was photographed somewhere in SF, and ended up in the Other section. 

As the Stencil Archive project continues to develop, some new main archives may get pulled out of the Other section. After writing this post, it may be time soon for North Beach, Chinatown, and Fishermans Wharf to get a new archive. We'll put this down on the future to-do list.