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Since 2002 (updated often), your old-school website for all things stencils. Photo, video, links, and exhibit info submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.

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BSA Interviews Icy and Sot (NY, NY)

Go here for full interview.

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Artist Interview

15 Sep: Scott Williams Home Invasion (SF, CA)

Home Invasion
Scott Williams
September 15 - Oct 20, 2012
6pm to 8pm
This fall, Steven Wolf Fine Arts will recreate the studio interior of painter Scott Williams, best known to San Franciscans as an early aerosol street artist who painted murals, cars and interiors using a spray can and stencils. His primary media though, since 2000, when he exchanged spray can for airbrush, is canvas, wood, and books. Williams cinematic, stencil montages take the form of landscapes, rock posters, political propaganda and various forms of abstraction. Literature, punk flyers, Asian woodcuts and obscure comic books are among his many sources.

One of his most intriguing creations is the interior of the Victorian Mission flat that he has lived in for the past 25 years. The residence, studio and gallery is a mixture of wall stencils, decay and paintings that hang on the wainscoting and stack on the floor like sloppy layer cakes. The space is a link to an era of San Francisco studios that flourished before skyrocketing rents, gentrification and the evolution of live/work spaces into generic corporate interiors. His capacity to achieve a painterly looseness with stencils, and his tendency to work flat on the ground in the manner of the abstract expressionists mirrors that link to the past. The installation will include paintings from every stage of Williams' career, new stencils made directly on the wall, and fragments of the studio itself.

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In the Galleries

Stencil Archive: Technical Difficulties

Well now.

You may have noticed that the homepage navigation bar is at the bottom of the page. This usually means that content wasn't properly pasted into the Body field, thus messing with the code. After a bit of troubleshooting, the page didn't fix itself.

There also appears to be a disconnect within the site to image links. Thumbnails in the Archives are broken, as are some of the links to the blog posts.

Please stand by.... stencils are still available to browse. Just might be a bit more weirder than usual.

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Stencil Archive News

Stencil Archive Photo Uploads Pt. 2: L-Z

Whew... finally finished the L-Z portion of the latest uploads.... keep those submissions coming!

Thanks to all the people and artists who submit. Just a few: Monica, Bryn, Sirraum, Brad G., Kieren, Matilde, Karen

>NEW< Lay it on Thick (Chris Benfield and Russell Howze)
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Artists_…

Michael Roman
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Artists_…

Romanowski
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Artists_…

Matthew Curran
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/USA/Artists_USA/Mathew…

>NEW< Night Owl (Oakland, CA)
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/USA/Artists_USA/Night-…

>NEW< Rone (Melbourne)
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/Australia-AU/Australia…

>NEW< Ryan Moore (NZ)
http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/New_Zealand/New_Zealan…

San Francisco:

Clarion Alley: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/ClarionA…
Haight and Divis: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Haight_D…
Other Hoods: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Other_SF…
SoMa and FiDi: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/SoMa_Fin…
TL: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Tenderlo…
The Castro n Hayes Valley: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/The_Cast…
The Mission:http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/The_Miss…
Valencia St.: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Valencia…
Western Addition: http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/San_Francisco/Western_…

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Stencil Archive News

HuffPost Discusses Fair Use and Copyright within Street Art

Watch it here.

You can also read about Shepard Fariey's copyright infringement settlement with the Associated Press here (LA Times).

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Legal Information

Stencil Videos

[u] Stencil Archive Photo Uploads: 18,000th Flick Arrives

Tip of the hat to Joe Boruchow for his weekly email cut out blasts. His stack of uploads took the Stencil Archive over the 18,000 mark.

This is Part I of the current batch of uploads. Finally! We've decided to do it alphabetically this round. So today is A-L. The rest of the uploads will come soon.

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Stencil Archive News

Matt Eaton uses a bit of negative space (Video)

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Stencil Videos

TXMX Stencil Portraits (Video, in German)

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Stencil Videos

29 Aug: 10am Mural Premiere (SF, CA)

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.