A Second Stencil Book Brewing?

Photo wrangling continues for Stencil Nation. I think it’ll all come together this week, because it must be finalized now. Yesterday, I biked over to 24th street and picked up a DVD of over 50 scans of 1980s and early 1990s street stencils from D.S. Black. We had a great talk about street art, stencils, Thomas Pynchon, and other things. He began to mention places where I could continue research on stencil history. “At this point,” I replied, “I can’t keep digging and researching the origins.” Pausing to think, I then said, “maybe if someone asks me to write another book about stencils, it’ll be about its origins only.” Earlier this week, Josh MacPhee threw out more leads to follow for stencil origins, and I told him that it was too time-consuming at this point. And this morning, I see two e-mails in my inbox from two people I had contacted months ago for stencil history and historical photos. Gee Vaucher of the CRASS collective dropped a quick line wondering if she had replied to my initial em. Photographer Susan Meiselas finally got in touch with me regarding her photographs in Nicaragua in the 1980s. She offered to look for Sandinista stencils and gave me another lead on finding documentation. So, I’m putting the idea out there for an art history book on stencils. Klutch and Logan Hicks are still on the wrangled list, and an activist here in the Mission is giving me a CD of Oaxaca images today to maybe add to the ones I already have. Still haven’t heard from Andie Grace of the BRC LLC regarding Burning Man stencil art. Ach! Getting close, but no cigar yet. Writing continues and goes well. Justine is working on new cover comps. Will call her very soon! PS: Finally got to read some Overspray ‘zine/mag issues thanks to Janet Attards mailing them my way. Good to see that they’re trying to keep street art real, keeping the communities in dialog about the art, the politics, the fine balance between starving and making a living, etc. Also finally watched some of Matt McCormick’s short “The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal.” People keep asking me if I’ve seen it, so now I get a taste of its brilliance. And, sadly, the Albany Landfill seems to have been evicted for “clean up” today. That usually means one less spot for graffiti and radical urban living.