Historical Item

KPFA's Hard Knock Radio highlights the work of Activist and Artist Favianna Rodriguez, discussing "Reproduce and Revolt" which she co-edited with Josh MacPhee. Lots of stencil-related goodness in this radical clip-art book.

OK, another non-stencil post, but still worth sharing as a historical reference.

Here's the original post

Joseph Kyselak - the father of Graffiti

Posted by Gerald
Saturday, April 7. 2007

Have you ever heard of Joseph Kyselak? No?

Not a stencil story, but worth posting as a classic reminder of human's urge to get up:

KILROY WAS HERE!

In 1946 the American Transit Association, through its radio program, "Speak to America," sponsored a nationwide contest to find the REAL Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article.

Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim, but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts had evidence of his identity.

I have been photographing stencils and stencil posters on this wall for 10 years. This meeting is from Southern Exposure Gallery.

January 30, 2008 6:30 PM

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

From the Stencil Archive inbox:

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.

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.

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.