Wot? Culture clash in the California southern badlands. My infected thumb and I hop a late-running bus off of Powell St. to find out that the company will drop us off mid-way to load in on a van. Off season they say. Still winter in April so small van to LA. At the switch, I use my honed travel skills to save a seat with a bag as soon as the van arrives. Glad I did, because one poor beaten soul (seriously, he looked recently beaten) had to sit on the floor for the next three hours. I soaked the podcasts and made a big dent in the Day of the Triffids as the dessert stretched on beyond all the fruit and nut plantations. Drought? Your water feeds the USA….. LA LA, not quite hot today but haul luggage from Union Station to catch the MetroLink north along the Antelope Line towards Newhall and CalArts. No problems. How to get to CALArts? Umm…. Oh, look. A bus driver arrives just when I need to ask. “Just take the 4 or 14. Over there,” he tells me. My train ticket gives me a free transfer. Some 20 minutes later the bus arrives and I know to look for McBean Parkway. Hey, there’s the CalArts sign. The driver just drops me off there (there IS public transportation in LA) and I haul my huge, heavy bag up into CalArts and ask a few students where to find the fourth floor theater where Christine’s show is. Find it no problem! She’s surprised to see me there. My honed travel skills prevail for the day. My thumb and Peter’s Shadow celebrate.
Continue reading “Shadows and Lots Cast”
Tour’s Heading to Points South
Back on the roads of Stencil Nation tomorrow. Hoping that pigs and birds aren’t allowed or sneezing on the bus down to LA! The tour has been OK so far. Crowds are a bit off it seems, and sales are low, but I am happy to be on the road. Arcata and Sacramento happened last week, to little fanfare. I’m not sure what happened, or if stencils are on the radar that much in that part of California. Only a small turnout in Davis. All enthusiastic people who waited a bit longer than usual before the presentation. I showed them photos of Stencilada at CELLspace to kill time. Only sold a few books. Had an isolated day in Davis the next day, and managed to find a few stencils around the college town. Got to upload pics to Stencil Archive, which was long overdue. Sacramento on Sunday was quite miserable. The highlight was finding what looks like a C215 stencil on a random building in midtown. Found a few more stencils near the book store in the Tower District. But the presentation was a wash! Had one person show up, and we waitied about 30 minutes for more people, killing time looking at a Peter Kuper Spy vs. Spy book and flipping through Stencil Nation. She left and I left soon after, getting stuck in traffic the whole way back to San Francisco. Last Wednesday at Booksmith on Haight St. was a good time. Had about 12 or 15 in attendance. Sold some books. Got to finally meet Eclairacuda Bandersnitch, the current queen of street work in SF. She said that the kissing girl stencils all over the Mission are by Banksy (he’s got a book out from PM here in the Bay Area so was in town). Who knew he painted sidewalks?
Spent Thursday at the SF Zero Graffiti Huddle in China Town. That was disturbing (will post my notes soon). I missed the SF Arts Comission presentation on thier upcoming Street Smart program (artists to paint murals on walls that have permission). CUBA was there, one of the godfather’s of SF spray art. We connected and I think it made both our days. Sunday was the presentation and skillshare in Oakland. Another small crowd of about five people. Good news is that four of them stayed for the skillshare. The photos of our hanging out and making stencils are at the top of this post. When I showed up to Rock Paper Scissors, the exhibit on the walls was getting painted over and a zine jam was happening. I encouraged them all to hang out and keep working during my presentation. Loved the multiuse aspect of that small space. Ruby from Wisefool was there, dropping great history of stencils in the Bay Area and adding great comments durng the presentation. So, off to the southlands tomorrow. No idea where the next wifi connect will be. Oceanside and San Diego are the next stops. Then LA (tell all your friends!) and Tempe, AZ. Then back up to the Bay Area for about four more stops. I added up all the stops from this tour and the upcoming Middle America leg, and will have done over 50 stops by then. Not sure what else is in store after June. I DID say last June that this was the “year of the stencil” so am not quite sure what next year holds in store. Year of the swine flu? Hope not!!
Janet Bike Girl’s Stencil Nation Window, Toronto
Many thanks to Janet Bike Girl Attard for setting up a Stencil Nation window at Pages in Toronto. Will be in Toronto June 13 and am looking forward to meeting all the amazing, supportive people up there!
Continue reading “Janet Bike Girl’s Stencil Nation Window, Toronto”
Stencil Nation Cali Tour off to Great Start
Showing the “how to make a stencil” slide to the folks at Northtown Books, Arcata, CA
Talking stencils with Dan Wargo at KHSU’s Hompage Show, Arcata, CA
After two days of cold and wet in the forests of Endor (i.e., Grizzley Creek State Park, where George Lucas filmed all the Ewok scenes), I had a great day in Arcata, CA. Found a few stencils on the streets, took a tour of the city’s wetlands wastewater treatment plant (thanks to my host Gabe), and also went over to KHSU’s studio to be interviewed for their Friday Homepage segment. That night, I gave my first California presentation to a standing room crowd at Northtown Books. It was Arts Arcata night, so many of the shops around the book store had live music going. And it was great to see the seats filled in a small city with almost no graffiti (one local explained it thusly: no railroad, no interstate, so no artists coming through hitting the walls or trains). And Northtown books was nothing but nice and helpful. Sold some books too which always feels good.
Tomorrow will be my first San Francisco presentation. Well, the first public presentation since I gave my room mates a presentation before the touring started in June. This weekend will be Davis and Sacramento stops, both the Avid Reader. Just got transportation worked out for the Southern California leg April 28 too, along with a few days in Joshua Tree. And have already booked six stops along the way between Toronto and St. Louis for June’s Middle America. That could well be the final tour, though there’s a buzz that Brazil may be in the offering. We’ll see!
Stencilada Fresh Install Pics
Much thanks to the Metal Shop at CELLspace for hardware install, spigot move, and an amazing Metal Mural to accent!
Thanks to Chris Benfield for helping out, Flora Bora for encouragement, and all the artists for their time and talent!
Unveiling and cook out tomorrow at 1pm!
Now What by James S.
Cell panel art by Hugh D’Andrade, stencils by Russell Howze
For the Win by Crystal Townsend
Brown and Proud by Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
Construction Site by John Koleszar
Marx, Lenin, and the Colonel by Scott Williams, painted by Russell Howze
Continue reading “Stencilada Fresh Install Pics”
Stencilada: This Saturday!
What a fast and furious last two weeks. Scott Williams gave me a pile of his larger stencils for his Stencilada panel (he doesn’t use spray paint), and I had no where to store them. So they lived on my bed while I prepared the panels and did other things. So I literally slept with Scott’s cut stencils. Like Jimi Hendrix sleeping with his guitar, but not really! Once I started painting Scott’s panel, I started dreaming and day dreaming in bubbles and negative space swirls. I lost count of all the layers and hits I put on the panel. You can thank the bubbles for this. They ended up floating through the whole design, and “winning” as I put it (Marx wins too with no bubbles on him at all). Took me a bit longer to finish his panel than I thought, and didn’t want to rush it. I bought a hair dryer at the thrift store to speed things up, but still slowed down some with the heavy coats. Along with Scott’s original pieces, I created masks, developed shoulders for the figures (esp. the Col.) and made some spots crazy busy (Williams-esque?), while open spots showed the bottom layers. When I stopped by Scott’s place to get the stencils, his main advice was to “have fun.” I did, and got schooled in the process. Made a few mistakes, and hid most of them! Have photos, but will keep his for a surprise at this Saturday’s grill out.
About five days ago, I printed out Hugh’s CELLspace art (36 inches instead of 38 for two sides, but no time to re-d0), and finally started cutting it out. Took me longer than I thought to cut out the half-tone “cloud” stencil for the first layer, but finally hit the panel with that one yesterday and today. Love how it looks, though I’m a half-tone junkie. If I can’t focus on it, then its got to be good. Will put the second layer on the panel today or tonight. Have the green layers cut and ready to go too. The black layer is the last layer to cut. I knew that I’d be rushed for time and usually don’t like curating and creating, but things are going OK for this panel. Ran into Hugh last night at Al’s Comics Benefit and we discussed the panel. I told him that it’d definitely be a “stencil version” of his art. He’ll see the bridges in there. Wish I had time to make the bridges more creative, but must work with what I’ve got. I also will have the part of the wall where the spigot is. I took it to give the other artists a clean view of their art.
Speaking of which, here are some jpgs of some of the panels we have photos for.
See you Saturday between 1 to 5pm.
 
 
From L to R: Detail from Peat Wollager, James S.’s panel, and John Koleszar’s panel
Stencil Nation Cali +1 Tour Dates Announced
Stencil Nation California +1 Spring Tour 2009
(Please check here for more updated information to the above TENT and “?” stops, etc.)
Out of Market Collapse: Stencil Revival
Monday morning greetings from Stencil Archive HQ. Have been back in the home office for almost a full month now and future projects move forward daily. No rest for the weary stencil bearer. As banks, retail, insurance, and home sales crash and burn around us, San Francisco has decided to paint huge rectangles and odd shapes of buff across the Mission. Maybe things need to look good during a depression! Anyway, I’ve photographed few stencils since I’ve returned to the City. No matter, I have things brewing. It’s been too long, dear citizens of Stencil Nation. How the hell are YOU in these topsy turvy times? Taking a break from cutting a half tone stencil at the moment. This particular stencil will be the cloudy sky on my Stencilada panel, which will incorporate Hugh D’Andrade’s amazing CELLspace artwork from a poster I art directed about three years ago. Phish couldn’t have returned from the grave soon enough, plowing through online MP3’s of audience recordings from Hampton as I cut and cut and cut circles for the half tone. I also set up a work area downstairs from Stencil Archive HQ and just primed the two panels I will paint for Stencilada. I’m ghost writing for Scott Williams, who doesn’t get anywhere near spray paint. Went over to his place last Wednesday and helped him pull out about 10 stencils from his piles of archives. He had a working piece that he was air brushing, which I will try to make a version of for his panel. “Have fun,” he kept telling me between directions. Have fun? This is Stencil Master Class 356! It’s going to be great. First, have to stop by 1AM in SoMa and buy some paints. No Alien! That paint sucked in Europe. Hope to start painting Scott’s piece tomorrow or Tuesday. Maybe under the full moon? Looking like Tiago and John Koleszar will make the March 28 weekend grill out and unveiling. Too bad Peat couldn’t work it out. Look for postings all over the place for Stencilada on March 28. Got a large mural idea brewing for a CELLspace panel too. Dia is gonna hit it up a bit and stencils will end up on the new piece as well (this mural is replacing a destroyed mural from Negative Spaces). Might have even more surprises brewing that March 28 weekend. Stop by and check in with us, eat food, drink beer, and see art! What else? Have a California Stencil Nation tour brewing in another vat of goodness. Should start posting that tour later this week too, once Souther Cal gets it together to confirm dates. Things are currently starting off at CounterPULSE on April 15. Who needs to do taxes now that we don’t have any money anyway? Stop by for a good ole’ slide presentation on stencil art. Will be part of a group show at ATA on May 16, supporting Annice Jacoby’s Misson Muralismo book event. I helped her work on the book for the past three years, offering up stencils pics and advice and text. Abrams will publish this book, currently slated for release in June. Many fun things in store for this book release. More on that when Annice starts dropping the info. Have future tourings in the works as well, but nothing to announce just yet. Stay tuned. So the mall sprawl empties out (RIP Circuit City), the parking lots where fields once lay sprout grass anew (under the pavement, the meadow), and us starving artists keep living on the fringe of the system. It’s all about community, family, and taking care of one another. So, back to cutting half tone holes to live Phish. What’s your excuse?!!
Stencilada Art Unveiling, March 28
static page here, for all updates/changes and artists bios
Stencil Archive and CELLspace present
Stencilada
Join CELLspace in an unveiling of eight panels of stencil and multi-media works by local and national artists.
The Metal Shop at CELL decided to accent their amazing Metal Mural with smaller panels of art in the open spaces below their existing work. You are invited to come by CELLspace, meet the artists and curators, and see newly the installed works on CELLspace’s Bryant Street facade.
Opening Grill Out
Saturday, March 28
1 to 5 pm
2050 Bryant St.
b/t 18th and 19th Sts.
SF, CA 94110
FREE (one day only, inside CELL if raining)
Food on the grill, bevs in the cooler, music on the boombox, and art on the walls
(some food and beverages will be provided while supplies last)
Featuring eight panels of art by
Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
Russell Howze with Hugh D’Andrade
John Koleszar (AZ)
James S.
Crystal Townsend
Scott Williams
Peat Wollaeger (MO)
with special stencils on paper by Tiago DeJerk (OR)
Bring your own cut out stencils to add to the ongoing collection of stencil art at CELLspace (some paint provided)
flyer art: John Koleszar ::: flyer photo: Jane Verma
Non-Stop Euro Touring
SN vs. XLt Ost Euro Road Tour Notes
Ahoj (pronounced ahoy) from Bratislava’s Next Apache Cafe. Quite a scene here for a Monday Night. As Pod, Dusan, and myself web zombie, a decent blues band plays in the other room. Here in our room, the bar hops and the euros get spent (Slovakia just switched over to the euro, so it has been interesting to see bartenders take a moment to stare at the coins they don’t know that well).
The last five days have mostly been in Dusan’s small Peugeot, looking out the dirty windows at rolling snowy hills, overcast skies (sometimes sunny), and looming small post-Soviet cities along our routes. Was just in Berlin five days ago, comfy at Pod and Dusan’s place, but glad to have jumped into this East/Middle Euro Mini-Tour. Will head West once again to Wien/Vienna in a few days, for the final slide presentation and SN vs XLt DJ/VJ blow out.
Continue reading “Non-Stop Euro Touring”
Stencil Nation vs. XLt Mini Tour Pics 1.0
Text posting in the works when I have the time. Meanwhile, enjoy tour pix……
The Stencil Nation Presentation Begins! (Neurotitan Gallery, Mitte, Berlin)
After a great presentation at Skolska (Old City, Praha), they became an official spot on the Stencil Nation map.
Needing a break from urban networkz, Pod and I took a brief walk behind a gas station we stopped at in Czech Rep. Lots of critter tracks back there.
Continue reading “Stencil Nation vs. XLt Mini Tour Pics 1.0”
Euro Zone Mini-Tour Begins Tonight!
Stencil Nation vs XLt Ost Euro Zone Jan. Mini-Tour
The amazing DJ/VJ Podinski will also appear at these presentations, dishing out his multi-kulti treats. DJ/VJ Podinski is a psychomedia analyst with XLTerrestrials.org, an arts + praxis think tank developing radical hybrid organisms for immediate and unmediated fecundity. XLt work has been featured at festivals, conferences and venues such as Next 5 Minutes, Ars Electronica, Transmediale, 24C3, Roxy/NoD, Pergamon Museum, Kulturbrauerei and Club der Polnische Versager.
Info can change so go here for all the latest news.