Stencil Jam!

Stencil Archive guru Russell Howse is going to be in Seattle on June 21 to promote his awesome new book Stencil Nation. I invited him to be part of a "stencil jam" in which a whole bunch of local stencil artists get together with old and new stencils, a whole mess of spray paint, and a few walls in need of beautification. He enthusiastically accepted, I've got the walls, the plan is to create a bitchin' new stencil mural in a few short hours.

The Underground Events Center in Belltown (same space as the Punk Rock Flea Market) is gonna host the Jam starting at noon on June 21. We'll start with a short workshop and then get to work. We have two large outside walls to work with, so we're thinking about LARGE pieces to fill the space and serve as graphic anchors. I'm still looking for a DJ for the day. We'll go until we can't see anymore, and then we'll drink beer, play some music, or get on our bikes and look for some other walls to hit.

We want this new mural to have a long life, so we've got some interest in keeping the paint job relatively neat and aesthetically under control. In other words, thoughtful stencil pieces are completely welcome. Random tagging is not. I understand it's a narrow line to walk, hopefully things won't get too weird.

Russell's talk is at Elliot Bay Books at 2pm, and he'll be at the Underground space after 4:00. And I betcha he'll sell you a book at the jam if you want it. The photo above is from the inspiring Difusor project in Barcelona. Assuming all goes well, pictures from this event will follow shortly.