Historical Item

Grateful Dead "Steal Your Face" Logo First Stenciled

Submitted by russell on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 17:00

Photo, from WI in 1970, updated 2019 (thanks, r/gratefuldead)

Was reading an interesting article/interview about LSD pioneer chemist Owsley "the Bear" Stanley and hopped over to his site for further reading. In 1969, Stanley and artist Bob Thomas worked out the Grateful Dead logo to mark the band's equipment (here's his story). At first, it was just the three-colored lightening bolt, and was used as a stencil.

In the account, Stanley describes how it became a stencil:

"At the warehouse I told Bob the idea that I had, and he made a quick sketch. A mutual friend, Ernie Fischbach, who was visiting with Bob…

Save Tire Beach in SF!

Submitted by russell on Fri, 08/03/2007 - 15:32

From the Stencil Archive inbox:

Thought you might know some folks who would be interested to know about this weekend's planned whitewashing of graffiti at tire beach, aka toxic beach or "warm water cove." If people aren't familiar with the area, it's the park at the east end 24th at the bay. The walls adjacent to the park are covered with great graffiti--a testament to the area's long history as as a space for free, unrestricted public art. A few city sponsored groups are soliciting volunteers to "reclaim" the park from "graffiti vandals" who they say have targeted the park. This saturday the 4th, between 9am and noon, they plan to whitewash over the graffiti as part of efforts to make the area cleaner and safer. Safer for development, and for the inevitable mission bay-ing of the dogpatch, I guess.

This is a terrible idea. Tire beach is one of the most beautiful spots in the city, as-is, and one of sf's last bastions of unsterilized, unrestricted space. If you agree… Read more

Resistencia Visual: Oaxaca Stencil (Video)

Submitted by russell on Thu, 07/26/2007 - 20:01

aki esta el link pa el video de fotos de stencil de oaxaca. saludos

Splasher Manifesto PDF Download

Submitted by russell on Thu, 06/28/2007 - 12:12

From the NY Times article:

Two days after Mr. Cooper’s arrest, a group of people showed up at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea, where a reception was being held for Mr. Fairey. Without identifying themselves, they distributed copies of a 16-page tabloid with the title “If we did it this is how it would’ve happened,” with a cover photograph of an image created by Mr. Fairey defaced with paint.

Inside were reproductions of the communiqués that were pasted next to the sites of many paint attacks and appeared to draw inspiration from the writings by the Situationists, a group of political and artistic agitators formed in the 1950s, and a 1960s anarchist group called Black Mask.

In often bombastic language those fliers condemned the commercialization of art and included statements saying that the wheat paste used to affix the fliers had been mixed with shards of glass. An essay in the paper given out at the gallery scoffed at those who had difficulty… Read more

Lost Graffiti Dissertation FOUND!

Submitted by russell on Fri, 06/15/2007 - 15:56

After being lost in an old mail folder, I finally found Steve Paynter's great dissertation "Subversion of Public Space." He gave me the paper in 2005, so I'm glad that I can put it up for you all to enjoy. Go here to download the PDF file, read, and discuss.

Apologies to Steve for waiting so long to post this.

Taggers spread gang image

Submitted by russell on Tue, 10/24/2006 - 21:19

Here's an article about gang graff from my temporary home town:

Des Moines, other cities wrestle with rise in graffiti reports, costly cleanups

By TOM ALEX
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
October 24, 2006

The writing is on the wall: Des Moines police expect 2006 to be a record year for graffiti.

Officers have fielded 942 graffiti reports this year. That compares with 740 last year, 441 reports in 2004 and 357 in 2003.

"We'll top 1,000 for the first time" this year, Detective Michael Stueckrath said.

Even more disturbing than the damage and the cost of cleaning it up, police say, is the source of the malicious art: street gangs, who are using the spray paint to send messages.

Gang-related graffiti was reported in at least nine locations on a single day last week.

"It's really disturbing," said City…

SRJC student arrested as prolific tagger

Submitted by russell on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 21:43

By BOB NORBERG
AND JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT (Santa Rosa, CA)

A Santa Rosa man suspected of being the prolific tagger "El Barto," whose widespread graffiti has caused about $100,000 in damage, was arrested Friday, police said.

xxxx, an 18-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student, is suspected of several hundred graffiti incidents throughout Sonoma County and in other parts of the Bay Area during the past year, making him one of the region's most active vandals, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said.

His tag has been prominent on freeway railings and overpasses, homes, commercial buildings, fences and signs.

"I even saw him once on Lombard in San Francisco," Banayat said.

After a monthlong investigation, xxxx was arrested at a first-floor, one-bedroom Ridgway Avenue apartment where he lived with his father, xxxx, across the street from the Santa Rosa City Schools District administrative offices.

Youth soccer… Read more

Writing's on the wall for graffiti guerrilla

Submitted by russell on Tue, 07/25/2006 - 05:46

Writing's on the wall for graffiti guerrilla Notorious S.F. tagger hit with $20,000 fine

Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer

Original Article Link

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Carlos Romero left his spray-painted graffiti marks around San Francisco for years, tagging everything from fences and walls to street signs and trash cans with such monikers as CREAM and QUESO (which in Spanish means cheese).

And it wasn't just dairy products he had an affinity for. When police linked Romero to one tag name, city officials said, he would simply switch to another, and in addition to CREAM and QUESO he left a trail…

James Prigoff and Others at Commonwealth Club 8/16

Submitted by russell on Sun, 08/14/2005 - 22:04

Urban Scrawl or Artistic Freedom?

PEX, Street Artist
BEN MORGAN, Director, Quality of Life (Graffiti Film)
JOHN DOFFING, Founder, START SOMA + START MOBILE Art Galleries
MACHAELA M. HOCTOR, Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco City Attorney's Office
MOHAMMED NURU, Chair, San Francisco's Graffiti Advisory Board
JONATHON KEATS, Art and Culture Critic; Visual Arts Critic, San Francisco Magazine - Moderator

From its contemporary origins in the late 1960s, graffiti has spread globally, from the city and boroughs of New York to walls around the world. Some see the proliferation of graffiti as a veritable modern plague, an urban blight that clearly diminishes quality of life. Others would argue that today's graffiti is a historically significant art form, providing a unique means of creative expression to the disenfranchised and marginalized. Are the words of the prophets truly written on subway walls and tenement halls, or is graffiti nothing more…