Inspiration

I took a walk this morning to check out the world’s largest street mural in progress here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The mural is featuring over 60 legendary graffiti artists from the 70’s and 80’s and is organized my Phun Factory.  The industrial area should see alot more foot traffic from this and this outdoor gallery willbe a permanent exhibit. I took some pictures of the start of this ever changing space. Enjoy.

Last week I attended a book launch event for Swoon’s new book, Swoon,  at the Urban Art Projects space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Swoon had created  an installation with the books themselves, and they will be sold right off the wall. I have admired her work for years, seeing it all over my neighborhood and on blogs, but never got to meet her. I got in line, paid for a book, and plucked one off the wall. She was sitting casually in the space and I asked her to sign my book and gushed some words out. I really adore her stlye and moreso her voice. She brings attention to  world situations and worthy causes through her work. Her subjects become immortalized and honored in her work. Jeffrey Deitch wrote the intro to her book and describes her work with such perfection and also tells some humorous stories of working with Swoon, I suggest you pick up the book to find out more.

Well, today I went to a park in Williamsburg on Kent and North 8th that has a structure in it built by Swoon. This structure is similar to sustainable structures she is helping to build in Haiti. The difference is this structure also has her art adorning it. It is placed in the park fairly close to the shoreline and the juxtaposition of this hut-like structure to the architecture of the NYC skyline is brilliant. Enjoy the photos posted and if you are in NY try to see it. For information about the charity and how to donate or help, please visit kinbitshelter.org

Thanks Swoon for all your inspiration!

The other day I headed off to do another room at at the Ace Hotel. My friend Charles assisted me while simultaneously working on my new website’s redesign. I also asked another friend Tami,who does indie PR for me, to meet up. There we all were, full of Stumptown coffee and in Room 1105. I forgot this was one of the smaller rooms but we all found our place, Tami and Chaz in the bunk beds (yes) and me doing my thing. The wall was already painted a chalkboard matte black and so I decided to do a black gloss stencil pattern on top of this. This pattern, Birds on wires, is actually in my new book, Stencil 101 Decor. I cheated a little and had the pattern cut larger so I could work faster but the way I executed this was the same as you would with the standard sized stencil in the book. I started top left, and using the registration marks on the stencil, I created a grid on the wall using blue tape and a pencil. This went fairly fast and I worked around a door on the wall and a tv mounted as well! The reason I made the registration marks on the wall was so I wouldn’t have to paint in order. This is done so you don’t overlap your stencil on top of a wet area you just painted.  I painted the stencil with a dense foam roller, my favorite. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened the door to see this super cute gal named Valentine. She works for the Ace, blogging and holds the title “hunter/gatherer” (yes!). She took some pics and later a gentleman by the name of Jeremy visited to take more pics. We got to chatting design, and turns out he is a designer/art director for the hotel and did a vast amount of the signage and custom work I drool over  all around the hotel. I’ve mentioned this before but the attention to detail in the hotel design is just so clever. If you are a typography nut, there’s a lot to admire. They blogged about the progress on the Ace Blog. I digress… So I bounced around the wall, bent the stencil around some areas, until I covered the whole thing! The black on black gave this dramatic vintage wallpaper effect and I highly recommend it.  The photos show more contrast than in real life, it’s a subtle effect. I am dying to do more of this tone on tone effect with colors and white.  We finished the evening by me first asking Tami to hold the bunk bed ladder and walk on my back, then we walked down to Veselka for a nice warm, Polish dinner. Best Borscht in NYC!  Quite a New York day!

Two months ago, I did an in-store event for the opening of Michaels in Manhattan.  At the end of the night, I of course bought some art supplies and while online,  I spotted my swallow stencil on the cover of Somerset Memories magazine. I immediately bought it and saw that it was the beautiful work of Dina Wakley.  Dina is an artist-extraordinaire, putting a cool edge on scrapbooking and journalling.  Some people hear the word scrapbooking and think it’s not for them, but if you like painting, collage, making cards, and expressing yourself, try to digest the word!  I am drawn to Dina’s palette choices and the splattery fun sprayed look to her work.  This look can be achieved with my Stencil1 Sprayers. I also like her layering of handwriting over the stencil designs, such a nice personal touch to say what you really want to say.  I am always inspired to see how far an artist can take a simple stencil image. Dina teaches her techniques all over the world and online so I urge you to check out her inspiring blog. Thanks Dina, we look forward to seeing all you create!

This new piece appeared last week in Tottenham area of London. I was on a vacation, uh, Holiday, there and had to see for myself! The piece shows two children playing catch with a “no ball games” sign. This is a commentary on signs being posted near the estates in the area banning ball playing. Clever.

When I went to see it at night, the piece was protected by plastic. Check it out.

Banksy new piece in Tottenham

Banksy piece covered in protective plastic