Amanda Marie

I Was Just Thinking

http://www.whitewallssf.com/shows/i-was-just-thinking

January 11 - February 01, 2014
Amanda Marie has a deeply rich visual language, with 100's of stencils creating a massive vocabulary of imagery that is both comforting and spooky at the same time. Never heavy-handed, but with subtle hints and nostalgic vision she pulls viewers into her work with imagery dominated by children and totemic animals reminiscent of Golden Books-era illustration. Upon deeper inspection, Amanda's character placement invokes powerful feelings on more mature themes like sexuality and the loss of innocence, greed, happiness, envy and elation. 

Graffiti and selfies record pilgrims' progress at Bethlehem shrine
Academics are only now studying messages and paintings on the Church of the Nativity's columns dating back to the Crusades
Matthew Kalman in Bethlehem
The Guardian, Monday 23 December 2013 14.31 EST
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/graffiti-selfies-record-be…

Most visitors to the Church of the Nativity head straight for the grotto beneath the altar where, according to tradition, Jesus was born 2014 years ago. But among the throng of pre-Christmas pilgrims this year, Karen Stern, a historian at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, was more interested in the six-metre-high columns built to support the roof by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century.

In the gloom of the ancient nave, Stern's torch picks out hundreds of tiny crosses scratched into the four rows of columns – a common practice of ancient pilgrims who wanted to make their mark on the holiest shrines in Christendom – long before Banksy helped transform the walls of Bethlehem into a canvas for world-class street art.

By Sarah McClure
From missionlocal.org: http://missionlocal.org/2013/12/q-a-the-suitcase-stencils/
Posted December 7, 2013 6:00 am

Of all Mission’s graffiti, none likely appear with as much ubiquity than the stencils of a wheeled suitcase inscribed with the words, “Tenants Here Forced Out.”

Photo: stencilarchive.org

Always strategically placed, the suitcase stencils materialize on the pavement in front of a building that enacted an Ellis Act eviction — one in which the owner evicts all tenants to then generally sell it.
Mission Local recently sat down with two anti-eviction movement leaders: Erin McElroy of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, and Rebecca Gourevitch of Eviction-Free San Francisco to learn about the suitcase stencils and how grassroots today are fighting displacement in the Bay Area.

Mission Local: What is the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project?

Erin McElroy: It’s a collective of people working together to map the evictions and displacement that San Francisco residents are experiencing and the ways that dispossession are being enacted.

ML: How many people are in the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project?

EM: There are about six of us — all volunteers.

ML: So, I’ve been seeing a lot of these pavement stencils around the city. How many stencils are in the Mission District?

EM: I would imagine there are 15-20 stencils.

JEF AEROSOL à Marseille

- mercredi 20 novembre à 18h : rencontre - signature des ouvrages "Parcours Fléché" (éditions Alternatives / Gallimard) et "Risques de Rêves" (éditions Critères) à la friche de La Belle de Mai / librairie Salle des Machines (41 rue Jobin, Marseille) http://www.lafriche.org

- jeudi 21 novembre à partir de 18h 30 :
vernissage de l'exposition "Les deux font la paire" (Jef Aérosol et Nicolas Rubinstein) à la galerie David Pluskwa Art Contemporain (53 rue Grignan, Marseille) http://david-pluskwa.com

- depuis le 1er novembre : "Deep Eyes" (8 grands formats de Jef Aérosol) exposés au Pavillon M (Place Villeneuve-Bargemon, Marseille) http://www.pavillon-m.com

- samedi 23 novembre de 15h à 19h : performance "live painting", Jef Aérosol intervient sur le M/U/R (modulable, urbain, réactif), panneau 3 x 5 m géré par l'association Juxtapoz  (angle cours Julien / rue Crudère, Marseille) http://lemur-marseille.tumblr.com

Stencils in the Shadows: Two Artists on a Mission
Devin Holt, SF Weekly
link: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2013/11/stencils_in_the_shadows…

The house on San Jose Avenue was perfect. There was plenty of sidewalk out front, and enough light to see clearly from the streetlamps overhead. With a couple of quick glances up and down the block, the pair set to work. They laid their handmade outlines down on the sidewalk, adjusted them to assure proper alignment, and then pulled out a spray can. The stencils were painted with a few quick hisses, and everything was packed back up in less than a minute.
Three messages now looked up from the sidewalk. "Tu Casa es Mi Casa," "The New Mission: Haute yet Edgy!" and "Tenants Here Forced Out."

The house wasn't chosen because of its ample sidewalks, but because of the occupants. It was the home of René Yañez, a Mission district artist known for his work at Galería de la Raza, and for bringing the famed Dia de los Muertos celebration to San Francisco. Yañez is currently facing an Ellis Act eviction.

It's places like this, pivotal scenes in the city's ongoing culture wars, where "Stripe" and "Estrillata Jones" leave their stencil art.

Thanks to long-time stencil fan Tino for sending this evidence over.

Stencil Archive is currently looking for the proper VCR to play this tape, so we can sell clips to news corporations and blow the money on a new Tesla. 

http://aqueductmurals.com/

Just a few examples from a simple Google search:

Graffiti Buster: http://www.troyweb.com/graffiti-buster/
Since the days of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, graffiti has adorned the walls of our urban neighborhoods. In modern times, spray paint and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials. Graffiti is a quality-of-life issue that can result in costly cleanup and lowered property values. It generates the perception of blight. The appearance of graffiti is often perceived by residents and passers-by as a sign that a downward spiral in a neighborhood has begun, even though this may not be true.

The Graffiti Buster App was created as another tool to combat blighting graffiti in our neighborhoods. With the app, the reporting of graffiti is now streamlined, providing all needed information directly to municipal authorities. Reporting graffiti for cleanup is now as easy as a snap of a photograph and push of a button!

San Francisco: On the SF311, (http://www.sf311.org/index.aspx?page=797) you can submit requests for:
Abandoned Vehicles, Graffiti, Illegal Postings, Street or Sidewalk Cleaning, Streetlight Repair, Blocked Sidewalk or Space, Damaged Public Property, Litter Receptacle, Park Issue, Sign Repair, Street and Sidewalk Defect, and Tree Maintenance.