Apr
12
2012
Posts Tagged ‘tour’
Dec
30
2011
Photos featured in Vienna zine
Author: Russell
During my 2008/9 Stencil Nation book tour, I set up an event with Matteo Grieder at his art space Zeitvertrieb in Vienna, Austria. Matteo was nervous about the turnout (a common anxiety during my European tour), but I had Pod and Austrian artist Dieter Puntigam backing me up with live VJ and DJing. A nice crowd came for my presentation, bought books, ate and drank, and made a great scene for the event. Matteo was surprised and happy with the results.
A month ago, Matteo approached me with a request for photo submissions to his fun art zine “Artyfucked”. It is mostly a sketch zine, but he also features street art from cities around the world. Issue #8 features my stencil photos (the cream of the crop) from SF. They mostly cover 2011’s greatest hits. He also put them all in an online album.
Support a great project and buy a copy of “Artyfucked” today!
Aug
5
2011
Come Wander With Me!
Author: RussellJun
22
2011
SF Weekly Promotes My Tour
Author: RussellOriginal blog post here.
Graffiti Guru Offers Street Art Tours
 art by Get Up, Upper Haight St. |
No matter how cool you are, there’s still a pretty good chance that the only thing you know about street art is sometimes you come across it, and sometimes it’s amazing. Who did it? What’s behind it? Where can you see more? Who knows?
We do. Or, we know who knows: stencil artist Russell Howze. He’s the author of Stencil Nation, and he offers a three-hour, small-group tour called Scout for Street Art. Howze just started giving these tours two weeks ago, and promises to provide “expert explanations, stories, and background for most of the art that constantly changes on the streets.” And he’s not joking about the “expert” part.
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| Russell Howze |
Howze has dedicated his life to street art, especially stencils, and he knows a lot about the S.F. street art scene. “I have this particular affinity for San Francisco street art,” Howze says, “especially Mission district — there’s something really special and magical about it.”
Originally from Greenville, S.C., Howze has lived in San Francisco since 1997. Since he saw his first stencil in 1990 in Clemson, S.C., Howze has been photographing the public art in places around the world. In 2002 he created an online stencil archive, which features tens of thousands of photos of stencils. Stencil Nation, published in 2008, is the paperback extension of his site, documenting 350 artists in 28 countries.
Howze does not have a fixed schedule for his tour — you can just sign up by yourself or in a group ($37) per person and state your preferred times. The tour is run through Vayable, a company that draws on locals to give their own tours. Anyone can sign up to offer a tour, and Vayable acts as the conduit, handling bookings and payments. Vayable operates worldwide, and as one might expect, it offers numerous S.F. tours, including horseback riding on Ocean Beach, a used bookstore crawl, and a potentially perilous “Whiskey on Wheels” tour.
Vayable hosts a mixer called “A Vayable Idea” on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Galeria de la Raza, where Howze will start the night with a 10-minute talk, “The Present Future of Street Art.” The event is free, but you can register here.
Jun
21
2011
A Vayable Idea (Wed); Banksy Tour (Sat)
Author: RussellJoin me Wednesday on 24th St. when I speak for only 10 minutes at A Vayable Idea
Join me Satuday with TransportedSF for the Banksy Tour. I will guide you through the six remaining Banksy pieces via a biodeisel bus (drinking and fun allowed).
Some thoughts about Street Art Tourism in SF
Sometime around 2002, when an article about “The Mission School” of public art appeared in the SF Bay Guardian, the alleys where I wandered to photograph stencil art. Of course, this was around the time Banksy was becoming a sensation, Melbourne, Australia’s walls were exploding with public art, and Tristan Manco released his book “Stencil Graffiti.” As books began to get published, websites like MySpace and Flickr began to allow massive photo and info sharing, and digital cameras became cheap and easy to use, people started noticing that I was taking photographs of the sidewalk (and other strange locations). People started asking me questions about the art. Then I eventually saw people taking their own photographs. Prior to about 2005, very few people documented what was now being called street art. But this began to change. Like me, people were traveling around the world to see the art, the exhibits, and the freshest city walls. One of the pillars of street art entailed that artists had to travel and put their art up all over the world. It was only a matter of time before this all went mainstream.
When Banksy wandered through the USA about two years ago, there was a frenzy of Tweets and posts sharing the locations and art he left behind. I jumped into the frenzy and saw many other people wandering San Francisco to snap up photos of the fresh work. A few who scooped Banksy’s visit ended up on TV, and the blogosphere many cities ate up his art (and the eventual removal of much of it). In my mind, the sensation had arrived. Irionically, Banksy was promoting his documentary that looked at the hollow sensation of art’s next greatest thing.
I wasn’t surprised when I was asked to speak as an expert for a Banksy tour in May. With only six pieces remaining (well, one is totally destroyed but still possibly relevant), and a law in the books where drinking alcohol on a bus is legal, there was a good combination for a fun Saturday afternoon. The tour sold out, and we all had a great time. I know that Precita Eyes gives mural tours, and Chris Carlsson gives FoundSF tours, both of whome fill in gaps where the mainstream double-decker buses never tread. Antenna Theater developed the Magic Bus as a multimedia bus show, but demand was so high, they turned it into an ongoing “tour”. There are other tours that I probably do not know about, and some, like the Barbary Coast, Dashiell Hammett, and Beat Generation tours are a bit more mainstream. Jeremy Novy has an exhibit titled “A History of Queer Street Art” which is closing just in time for Pride Weekend. I am sure that people here for Pride are going to this exhibit and then looking for the illegal art afterwards.
Prior to the Banksy tour, I had wondered how many people came to San Francisco to seek out the painted alleys and walls. As street art became a topic of LA tabloids (”Is Banksy going to appear at the Oscars???” “The Art in the Streets show is causing more graffiti!” ) and Shepard Fairey became a household name, I saw the back streets of San Francisco turn into photo opportunities. Back when I visited Melbourne, Australia in 2008, their official tour brochure boasted that tens of thousands of tourists came to the city to see the painted laneways. As I visited the Citylights gallery just off Hosier Lane, I saw Japanese tourists snapping photos, a newlywed couple posing in front of the walls, and even a school group of young children looking at the art. This was only in maybe an hour of visiting the area!
As San Francisco spends $22 million a year to erase graffiti and street art, these changes beg the question “just how much money is the City making from all the graffiti and street art?” The best way to find out would probably be a funded study of underground and subculture tourist trends. If two people stood at both ends of Clarion Alley on a Saturday, and asked a small list of questions, I assume that the results would be surprising for the bureaucrats that only see vandalism. Then there are the stores that cater to the culture of street art. Upper Playground reigns supreme in the Haight. 1AM holds it down in SoMa. White Walls makes the illegal walls quasi-legal with their top shelf legal walls.
This is what I hope to talk about Wednesday night A Vayable Idea. This is a start up dot com that allows people to purchase tours from everyday people who love their cities. I’ve already done a few tours through Vayable and they’ve been great. My tourists have been curious about all the art that they see around them. I try my best to answer all their questions and show them the best spots. There are skateboard tours on Vayable, available in SF. There’s another underground tourist source that is understudyed. Our hills are famous for skating down. So I’m putting the word out: Who is catering to alt-tourism and why isn’t San Francisco paying attention? I’m crious to see what happens. Hope you come by and visit so that I can hear what you think about it all.
Dec
10
2010
Dec. 20: Stencil Nation Lands in Greenville, SC
Author: Russell“Russell Howze is a native Greenvillian and a stencil artist. He runs the Stencil Archive and published the collection Stencil Nation: Community, Graffiti, and Art in 2008, documenting the work of over 350 artists from 28 countries. The Stencil Nation Book Tour will stop by the Warehouse Theatre Monday, December 20 at 7 PM.”
Check out the rest of the Create Greenville interview here. FaceBook invitation and info found here.
Aug
12
2010
Ground to Cloud FringeNYC Flyer
Author: Russell
s
Aug
8
2010
Ground to Cloud in/on LA Times
Author: RussellThe REDCAT NOW Festival made the Sunday, Aug. 8 “Scene & Heard” column. Christine Marie had a great quote pulled stating “she began experimenting with the technique long before ‘Avatar.’ ‘I’m way ahead of James Cameron,’ she said with a laugh.”
Read the whole column here.
Here are some photos from our last night at REDCAT, taken by Steve Gunther.
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- Rachelle Mestrovich in Christine Marie & Ensemble's "Ground to Cloud."
Jul
13
2010
Ground to Cloud NYC Dates Announced
Author: RussellFringeNYC finally worked out all of their show schedules last week. Ground to Cloud is officially show # 3928 and will have five performances at The New School for Drama Theatre. The first show starts August 19.
The closest link on the Fringe site is for all the shows starting with the letter G. Please go there and scroll down to read about the show. And please buy tickets!
Ground To Cloud
45 min
N/A until 8/17
Aug. 18/Aug. 31
- THUR 8/19 @ 7:30-8:15
- FRI 8/20 @ 6-6:45
- SUN 8/22 @ 3:45-4:30
- MON 8/23 @ 5:45-6:30
- THUR 8/26 @ 8:30-9:15
Jul
9
2010
[u] Ground to Cloud: July 22 at CELLspace
Author: Russell
Ground to Cloud
A Special Bay Area Preview
Christine Marie & Ensemble present “Ground To Cloud,” a full-length theater spectacle of giant shadows, live action, and moments of 3D effects.
With special opening guest, Tobias of the Yard Dogs Roadshow
Plus Jonathan Youtt of The Big Tadoo Puppet Crew AND Vladamir Levitansky
Thursday, July 22
8pm to 11pm
$14 via Brown Paper Tickets
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118172
$15 or more at the door
CELLspace
2050 Bryant St.
SF, CA 94110
This will be a preview performance and will make it’s premiere the following week in LA at the REDCAT NOW Fest and an east coast premiere in New York City in August for the New York City Fringe Festival.
Jul
5
2009
Final Pics fm Stencil Nation Tour
Author: Russell-
- Some of the Da Vinci HS students who stopped by my presentation in Davis, CA. Most of them went to Mrs. Burke's class afterwards and cut some stencils.
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- Made some globes for Box Car Books after the great presentation there. The folks who hung out during the painting got to spray some stencils themselves.
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- After baking in the sun at the graffiti flood wall, I cooled down at the Arch while I waited for Peat to give me the grand tour of the city.
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- Me and Peat put on some amazing masks by Milwaukee artist Jeremy Wolf, and hang out in one of Mad Art's jail cells. St. Louis
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- Believe it or not, I found two stenciled stickers in the jet in this photo. But most of my time at City Museum was spent climbing, sliding, scooting, etc. FUN!
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- The SN spread and demo area in the foreground. I'm showing them A1one's recent Green Pencils in Iran. Mad Art, St. Louis.
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- Peat knocks out a Keith Haring stencil at my Mad Art presentation. He also showed videos of his works.
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- Giving a stencil demo at Mad Art, St. Louis. This time, the globe's going on a piece of vinyl Peat gave me to paint.
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- Got to paint stencils at Peat's St. Louis studio. This is the final globe piece on vinyl, which I gave to Peat in appreciation.
Jun
29
2009
Stencil Nation Tour: the table
Author: RussellJust posted this up in the HFt Productions page, and thought you all might like to see the final listing of all the tour dates from the past year. Every thing adds up to 60 stops, with only two cancellations. THANKS again to ALL the people who helped keep me on the road, in the air, and in the spaces with all these fun, stencil-related events. Things I did this year: digital slide presentations, skillshares, street art tours, stenciling demos, book signings, stencil VJ’ing, exhibits, interviews, window displays, budget stencil art sales, and much more!
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