Piles of Books (and Work)

Just got three more boxes of Stencil Nation from Manic D Press today. The cases weigh about 28 pounds each so made for a breath-inducing triple schlep up to my third floor room. I like to get details on the publishing business so Jennifer informed me that the book release is being delayed due to the printers doing a crappy job packing the book cases. Jennifer even took photos to show them how crappy it was and to make them redo it. This means that the book won’t be out on the shelves (and websites) for about two weeks, because the order is at the printers warehouse in queue to be repacked. So Last Gasp, Manic D, and myself are the sole distributors of the book at the moment. Speaking of this, I finally got all the orders out the door today. Yesterday was a holiday here in the USA, so I shipped most of the books Friday and then another pile today. Got three orders today that’ll probably go out in the mail tomorrow, and will be sending cases of the books to my relatives back in the Southeast (go family business!). Must go to bed very soon because I need to get up at 6am and go to the Financial District for a networking breakfast I was invited to. I am hauling 10 books down there (10 pounds of paper and ink) and will give a 30 second pitch on what I do for a living. Thanks so much to my friend Pamela for suggesting that I go. It’ll be a great opportunity to sell the book to folks who usually don’t pay much attention to stencils or street art. Spent a good bit of time yesterday posting the June 6 and 7 events info on all the cals I can think of. Emails go out tomorrow. John Fekner saw the photo of the DECAY piece I painted in Bayshore and loved it. The stencil is NOT for sale but will be on display at the Revolution Cafe exhibit. Spent a good three hours today designing a new business card, mostly tweaking the new Stencil Archive logo so it’ll print OK. About to run out of the old one from 2003 and am out of post cards too (hopefully Jennifer will reorder). Had artist schwag to put in the book mailers and am out of those too! Just my stickers and the small pile of business cards to put in there. Heard from PaperMonster, Peat, and Klutch and they all hope to get art to me for the show. Looking forward to getting that put up. Super busy but loving it! Need to find time to cut out a new stencil too………

Stencil Nation Homage to John Fekner

Homage to John Fekner, San Francisco, CA, 2008 (cut out by John Fekner, 1978)

I just received two packages from John Fekner, a 1970s stencil pioneer from NY state. He sent me some items to hang for the Book Release and Stencil Exhibit on June 6. One of the items is the word “DECAY” in large stencil letters. I unfolded the pieces of the cut-out and looked closely at the letters. He cut them all by hand. I can tell because there are cuts coming out of the angles of the letters.

John told me that he was sending a stencil, so I couldn’t resist paying homage to him. With the great weather, and about 100,000 people in my hood for Carnaval, I rode my bike around and painted John’s stencils in places that showed decay. One location, other than the photo above, was on my 2003 stencil mural at CELLspace. Someone ripped a large portion of the mural off the wall a few months back. Perfect place to paint a DECAY stencil.

The stencil will go on the wall for the show and be for sale. It’ll still be ready to paint by the person who gets to own a 30 year old piece of street art history. Making history now!

A big thanks to John while I’m writing about his work. He helped me immensely with the development of “Stencil Nation’s” Chronology. I went to the library at least three times to follow up on leads that John gave me. Thanks to his knowledge, some of the gaps in the art form’s history were filled. Who knew artists were painting fine art with stencils and creating negative space works in the 1960s and 1970s? John did.

Stencil Nation Books are Here!

A few days ago, Jennifer dropped off three cases of the actual, ink-smelling, dead tree Stencil Nation book. What an amazing site: three heavy boxes of books (I think the weight of the book is due to all the ink used for the full-color photos). They look great. Since they’re 8×8, they remind me of a 45 record sleeve. Haven’t read through them yet, but am enjoying the photos. I have wanted to work on the slide presentation, but am now in shipping and handling mode. Dropped off the first book to Laura, and wasn’t impressed with how the Sharpie pen signature worked. It was fun to go through the book with Laura for the first time. Gave a second copy to Al at Al’s Comics. He was the main connection for my getting the book offer in the first place, so I was glad to have him be the second person to see it. He took a few copies to sell on consignment too. Started to create a spreadsheet of all the business activities going on, set up labels for the mailers, and began to compile a list of family and friends who get a copy. It’s a small list (I only got about a dozen free copies). My roomie Halsey is the zen pen master, so he hooked me up with a nice Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (India ink, acid-free, water-based, dries fast) with a medium round tip. Love it. Ran errands today, so went to the art store to buy my own PITT pen or two and they were out. Bought a different brand, and only signed one book with it. Took 4x as long to dry as the Faber pen. Bought mailers today, more sheets of labels, some packaging tape, and some wax stencil paper to experiment with. Ready to start mailing! Started autographing and packing the books for a trip to the USPS tomorrow. The book weighs about a pound so we’ll see how my shipping fees work out. Got about half the orders packed tonight. Have been speaking with my alma mater’s Communications Director about putting the book in the Alumni Magazine. He asked if I could be profiled. Sure, why not!? My family back in SC is asking for a big order of books too. And, I think I figured out the funding for the rest of the year, so will be able to go to Australia and a winter book tour on the East Coast. Isn’t the life of an artist/author glamorous? Are you jealous yet?

Stencils for Malcolm X’s Birthday

Spent May 19th, Malcolm X’s birthday, priming the sidewalk and painting stencils at the Revolution Cafe (location of the June 6 Book Release Party and Stencil Exhibit)

The stencil fun is starting to ramp up. Submissions for the June 6 exhibit are starting to come in. Josh MacPhee and Janet Attard’s art has arrived. John Fekner’s in on the way. Klutch and Adam5100 are sending pieces. Tiago is too. Scott Williams is ready to give me some art for the walls. Spent yesterday at the Revolution Cafe putting up the above portraits of 20th Century revolutionaries. Fitting to do it on Malcolm X’s birthday. Things didn’t go smoothly but I am extremely happy with the outcome. Walked around the Mission today and hung up posters for the June 6 and 7 events. People were excited about the event yesterday while working at Rev Cafe. Have a few more book stores to hit up with posters and then will be done with that. Sent off PR to the weeklies last week, and gave them great photos to use (photos usually gets their attention, thus more copy on their calenders). My family is placing a huge order of books for everyone in SC. The books should arrive tomorrow, so I’ll start mailing out the orders that have been placed via StencilNation.org (about 40 sold so far). All the promo has arrived up the coast and to the artists who requested them. Still waiting to mail one packet to Vancouver early June (at their request). No update on Australia. Have spoken to Peat and we’re still going to do it mid-July. Had a paid performance gig for the Fall not get funded so am wondering how I’ll be able to tour later this year. I’ll be broke! Still trying to figure this out. Janet has been getting great press in Toronto for her window display and cross-promo. Tiago has also cross-promo’d the Portland event with Pedalpalooza up there. Oh… started to finally create the slide pres for the roadshow. Looking good and about one-third finished. Plan on cranking it out this week and making my roomies sit through it as a test audience. Can’t wait to see the book! Will post my reactions tomorrow, maybe with a few photos of the actual book.

Nice!

May 10 Dream

I’m on the road and out in the country with Jonathan and a group of people. While we look for a place to stay for the night, Jonathan thinks he hears someone screaming in the woods. One of our passengers suggests he go check it out, so David S. and I tag along for the ride. We take a small country road through the woods and come out at a cluster of homes. We realize that we’ve just driven into an army base. Jonathan gets curious about one house and we walk inside to investigate. I get separated from them but find nothing weird going on. Outside, I find Jonathan taking photos of David in front of a fallout shelter sign. David is naked and painted orange! We all get a good laugh over this until the police show up. Jonathan and David flee and hide while I blend in with the curious onlookers. I decide to get in Jonathan’s car (a borrowed junker) to head down the road a bit. I visualize them jumping in for a getaway. I have problems with the manual transmission so just end up at the house next door. I stick around and befriend the elderly woman who lives in the first house. She and the head cop are good people, but a younger cop is antsy for an arrest. I walk through the second house and pass young girls. Jonathan and David reveal themselves to me, so I try to figure out a way to get them out of the house. On the back porch, the girls get their mom to talk to the police. I try to prepare the car for a getaway again and do better with the gears. The elderly woman tells me to leave it at the edge of the drive and then goes into her neighbor’s house. She comes back a bit later and tells me to drive around. “Can you tell where I hid them?” she asks me. Suddenly, Jonathan and David appear from small bundles of towels on the lawn. They hop in the car and we take off. We pass the elderly woman’s house and see several people walking to it. They’re blue and green with glittery clothes. We get a laugh and drive back into the woods.

The Desire Project Plays This Weekend

Once again, I will don the black garb of the theater tech for this upcoming show. Let me know if you’d like to check it out.

The Desire Project
Do you still desire it once you have it?

Six compelling performers wrestle with the mysterious qualities that define desire. An unsuspecting scientist is seized by the data that he’s painstakingly acquired thanks to Victoria’s Secret. A woman propelled by Klezmer music devours the fruit that’s projected onto her naked, dancing body. Billie Holiday’s spirit manifests itself in the voice of a sixty-five year old poet who writes punk with a wiggle. A man leaps for a ringing telephone with the hope that it’s his girlfriend–it turns out to be her boyfriend. The Desire Project joins together the passion of soap opera, the mayhem of a three ring circus and the unpredictability of stand-up comedy. And then they invite the audience into the mix. One weekend only. Then it’s gone. Take a risk. Join in.

The Desire Project
Directed by Judy Cohen
With Dakota Phoenix, Julie Berlin, Robert Fitch, Edana Contreras, Judy Cohen and Ron Jones