"Lights Out" Benefit photograph from Logan Hicks for Hurricane Sandy victims

Hurricane Sandy has destroyed entire towns and families in the tri-state New York area. While my own family and belongings escaped any real damage, many were not as fortunate. As we came through the hurricane, I thought 'that wasn't so bad' - and in my neighborhood, it wasn't. Then the news channels started to parade the misery of communities like Staten Island and Breezy Point across the screen. They were decimated. Entire houses washed away, lives lost, and cherished possessions destroyed.

Long time Stencil Archive friend and participant Amy Rice (see her Archive here) has a new book coming out. When I looked through my book "Stencil Nation" with people, Amy's unique stencil style would always stand out from the other sections. She also holds the honor of being my mom's favorite stencil artist!

http://www.qbookshop.com/products/210258/9781592538294/Playing-with-Sten...

Please join me (Russell) and Chris Benfield at our new mural tomorrow morning from around 10am until noon. The indoor mural is located at 1150 Ocean Ave. (at Lee Ave.). You can take public transportation to get there: MUNI: 43, 49, KT ... BART: Balboa Park Station (walk up hill towards Phelan)

The 1,800 square foot mural includes around 100 hand cut stencils, and depicts a pre-European San Francisco peninsula full of animals, plants and insects. Beginning with an eastern scene over the San Francisco Bay, the mural stretches down the corridor, passing Twin Peaks, Lake Merced, oak groves, and the Sand Dunes and wildflowers of the mural's location, and into the Pacific.

Chris and Russell will have sprayed stencils on bristol paper for sale at tomorrow morning's premiere. All proceeds will go to the Center for Biological Diversity, an organization that tirelessly protects endangered plants and animals in the USA.

There will also be an evening premiere at the mural, held in early September.

PUBLICATIONS

Anyway, at last CRASS ART AND OTHER PRE POSTMODERNIST MONSTERS by GEE VAUCHER has been published and is now available. Calverts have done another great printing job, though it’s pretty weighty to post, (but then it’s not a lightweight book), but we hope you think it is worth ordering.

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FUTURE PROJECTS

There are quite a few new books in the pipeline that we hope to have published by the end of the year.

First we are aiming to have a new book by autumn from

PENNY RIMBAUD - 3rd STREET BLOCKADE - Miles in the Corridor

A poem of wide, wise and confronting beauty inspired by a recent visit to NYC.

Chris Stain has a book coming out ths month from Drago Books. One of the earliest artists to discover and support Stencil Archive, Chris Stain has always personified the community-mindedness, radicalness, and kindness that the stencil scene tends to exhibit. While on tour with "Stencil Nation," a young artist in Baltimore recalled a childhood memory of Chris showing him how to use spraypaint... and then giving him some cans to take home and use. This small act changed this artist's life, and neatly shows what a great person Chris is.

Read the interview Stencil Archive had with Chris Stain back in 2002.

And if you live in New York, go to this great show (which will include long-time Stencil Archive collaborator Josh MacPhee).

Congrats Chris!

URBAN SOULE Newsletter
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Oct 2011

Issue No.10
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Dear Friends,
As most of you I had a major Jaw Surgery [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=msg7b7cab&et=1108339394208&s=528&e=0018cag...
on October 4th,
The surgery was a success and I am healing well and feeling much better, I still
have another three weeks of having my mouth wired shut,many months of liquid/soft
food diet and a long road to recovery, but once all is healed I should be back to
normal!

(I wrote an essay for this book. Haven't seen it yet, but now is your chance buy a copy and meet one of the stencil OGs - Russell)

Blek le Rat, the 30 Year Anniversary Retrospective will be available at the San Francisco MoMA on November 10, 2011, from 6:30 to 8:30.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard) in the Schwab Room
San Francisco, California

Join us and meet iconic Parisian stencil graffiti artist Blek le Rat as he signs copies of his new book!

"Blek le Rat's stencils distill the essence of the human struggle into poetically concise images. Blek shows clarity in his work, he makes every stylized mark count, yielding art that is at once personal and universal, economical in gesture, and bountiful in statement."

—Shepard Fairey

By RSVPing to this event you are reserving your $70.00 copy of the Blek le Rat 30 Year Anniversary Retrospective. Books can be picked up, signed and dedicated by the artist at the MoMA during the event.

RSVP via FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230788106977769&notif_t=event_invite

We look forward to seeing you there!

EXITSTENCIL PRESS NEWS
http://www.exitstencilpress.com

OK, this is the first mail out from Exitstencil Press and there’s much to tell, which is one of the reasons it has taken so long to say hello.

Firstly, we have very kindly been offered a gallery in London with which to officially launch Exitstencil Press  back into the land of the living again.
The’ UNDERGROUND GALLERY’ is exactly that and underneath Charing Cross Station, London.
This new gallery is the brainchild of a young photographer called Christine Santa Ana who, no doubt, has a lot of other good ideas up her sleeve for the future.
The launch of Exitstencil will take place on  21st NOVEMBER – 5th DECEMBER.
There will be a series of events starting with music from Tony Barber and Danny Drummond, otherwise known as THE NEAR FUTURE
Other events have yet to be confirmed and once they are, we’ll let you know all the times and dates.
http://www.undergroundgallery.co.uk/
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There is an exhibition about to open at the BOO-HOORAY GALLERY NYC.
If you are around anytime between 30th SEPTEMBER – 20th OCTOBER, take a look at the show, it’s a fascinating display of fanzines
and other ephemera from the 70’s-90’s.
Again there will be events happening, so see the website.
http://boo-hooray.com

I have written an essay for this very special book.

http://www.artpublishingltd.com/new/blek/

Blek le Rat, the “godfather” of stencil graffiti commemorates 30 years creating art on the streets with the launch of new retrospective from Art Publishing, Ltd.

A few photographs of Adam5100's latest work at the Guerrero Gallery.

From cut-out to spray-through to sewn-up!

http://guerrerogallery.com/