Shane, owner/curator of Art Whino in National Harbor, MD, snapped this pic of me and the crowd during my presentation on Sunday. About 20 people listened to the presentation and many more who dropped by to look at the walls (note the Stencil exhibit on the walls behind the screen) stopped to listen a bit. Sold the most books at Art Whino than anywhere else on the Northeast tour.
Karl shot this photo of me at the Wooden Shoe presentation off of Philly’s South St. Had a great crowd, so good conversation went down at this stop. Thanks to the folks at Wooden Shoe for all their hospitality. Wandered down to the Bean to check out a great cut paper show by Joe Boruchow and then had a few pints upstairs amongst the graff-covered (totally covered!) walls of the Tattooed Mom.
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Just got off the Northeast leg of the Winter tour. What an amazing time! Good to see old friends, make new ones, and share the book with all the folks who stopped by for the presentation. Look for photos and an report back on the last few events soon. For now, here is the updated info for the Winter Tour, down here in the Southeast USA:
December in the Southeast
- 2 Chester Co. Arts Council, Chester, SC at 5 pm
- 4 The Open Book, Greenville, SC at 5 pm
- 5 Firestorm Books, Asheville, NC at 7 pm
- 6 Hub City Bookfest, Spartanburg, SC (signing only) at 11-2 pm
- 6 Hub Bub, Spartanburg, SC (slide presentation, maybe workshop) at 7:30 pm
- 10 Patchwerk Playhaus, Charlotte, NC at 7 pm
- 12 A Cappella Books, Atlanta, GA at 7 pm
- 13 Rock Point Books, Chattanooga, TN at 4 pm
- 14 World Grotto, Knoxville, TN at 5 pm
- 18 Barnes & Noble, Mt. Pleasant, SC (signing only) at 7 pm
- 20 52.5 Records, Charleston, SC at 4-6 pm
You can find the original article here. I’ve found stencils on the streets here, mostly on stickers.
Arts Picks: Books
Russell Howze is takin’ it to the streets. Hitting the road this month in support of his summertime release, Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art (Manic D Press), Howze will explore the underground phenomenon of a definitively urban art form: “Stencil art is … more liberating in comparison to more traditional forms of artistic expression,” Howze says. “You can take an image and repeat it all across the world if you want to. You don’t have to work on canvas, stay on a gallery wall or paint in a specific location. You can even stencil stickers and mail them out to other people to stick up in other cities.”
Tonight’s one-hour presentation will focus on an overview of the art form, verbal and visual, including a slide show, examples of stencil art from around the world and actual cut stencils. In addition, Howze plans to go hunting for some of Philly’s own stencil art. “I’m looking forward to wandering some alleys and streets in Philly so I can find some work to put on my Stencil Archive Web site,” says Howze. “It’ll be good to go back to the source of modern graffiti as we know it, which started in Philly and blew up in NYC soon after. Personally, I think I enjoy discovering it more than anything.”
Three book events in three days. As always, I showed up to them with no expectations and was always surprised at how they turned out. Providence proved to be a tough show. I wonder who will show up, especially on a rainy Saturday evening, to hear a slide presentation about stencils. Throw in the fact that the bar beside Symposium Books couldn’t work out the video projector back by the bar, where regulars didn’t seem interested at all in a slide show, and things begin to look grim. Surprisingly, about 7 people show up to get cozy around my laptop and learn about the book. The bartender won’t turn the music all the way down too, making me feel like a rookie folk musician who has to play a club full of chatty, uninterested customers. Still, the show went on and I even sold a book to a teenager who loves stencil art.
These book tour gigs have a physics of their own. No telling who will show up, how many books will get sold, and what the solution is to draw larger audiences. I assume that most people don’t go to author events unless they like the book or know the author. I’ve been to a few over the years, and know that David Byrne of the Talking Heads had about 400 people at his event many years ago at CELLspace. They stood in line and even paid to get in before having to buy the book and sit through his PowerPoint slide presentation. I’m definitely not David Byrne, and have had shows as large as 120 and as small as 4. My events seem to be based upon chaos theory, throwing out wild unpredictable results. I’m sure other authors feel this with their own tours.
Gig two of three at Bluestockings Books in Manhattan on Sunday proved the point. As all the amazing collective members and employees moved the book shelves to the side and set up the chairs, I looked at the empty book store and tried to imagine people sitting in the seats. “I hope they show up,” I told myself, feeling bad for all the labor put in to setting up the gig. If no one shows up, will the staff still be nice to me?
At least things have dried up here in NYC. No rain means no wet sidewalks, so I put a globe stencil up outside the bookstore. I have decided not to go out tonight because my foot is killing me and making it hard to walk. I’d like to go out after the book event for a bit but don’t like the idea of limping around the Lower East Side with a computer bag and a bag full of books and art and stencils and paint. Oh well.
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Ehh, the rain. Left Boston and the cozy Van Praag home on a noon bus to Providence. Balmy weather today, and then the rain began on the trip south. Rained on and off all day, so my brief visit to Rhode Island didn’t include much beyond hanging out with my friend Mia. Found a few stencils on our brief travels to eat meals and grabe a few drinks. So no major stencil hunting. Symposium Books didn’t have the technical set up to do my slide show so they moved me to a cafe/bar next door. The unsavvy bartender didn’t know how to hook up the projector and it wasn’t a good set up anyway. I didn’t bring my remote control on the trip so didn’t have any way to change the slides. The projector was in the bar area and the drinkers didn’t seem interested in a book presentaiton. No worries, because only 7 people (9 including Edward from Symposium and a RISD teacher who dropped in for about 10 minutes) showed up. I set the laptop up on a table in front of the stage and had everyone crowd around. Called it a stencil fireside chat. There was a teenager there who really enjoyed the presentation. Mia and a few of her friends were there which helped flesh out the small crowd. They enjoyed it too (Mia makes shadow puppets as well as a stencil or two.) Late now, and must get up early to catch a bus to New York. Bluestockings in Lower East Side tomorrow night. Hopefully, without the wetness!
Q&A time at the Lucy Parsons Center Stencil Nation presentation. Had a great audience turn out for the event.
The tour is on! After a fast 10 days in San Francisco, I hopped on a jet and flew on over to Boston yesterday. All went well and my old friend Alex met me at the curb and drove me to his beautiful family flat in Cambridge. Hung out with Alex and Whitney and caught up a bit before we all headed to bed. I actually hopped online and began my net zombie thang until the wee hours, working on the tour(s). All is moving forward for the next few months. The Philly weekly has contacted me to feature the Wooden Shoe presentation. PIXNIT here in Boston hooked me up with the Weekly Dig about four days ago, so I submitted my “Top 10 Stencils.” I don’t really have a top 10 so basically picked ten moments in stencil history that I think are important. Saw it in the paper today but can’t find it posted online. Just heard from A Cappella in Atlanta that the the Atlanta Journal will call me soon for an interview. Fun! Booked and confirmed Charlotte at the Patchwerk Playhaus for Dec. 10. Have spoken to Mia in Providence to confirm a crash on her couch and will be at Symposium Books in her town on Saturday. All rolls forward. Today saw rain here in Cambridge, so I spent the day building an awsome railroad track with William (age 5). We also dug up a carrot in Alex’s backyard garden, and had random good times with Whitney and William’s two younger sisters. Didn’t stencil hunt much due to the weather, and hoped to bike to Lucy Parsons Center for the presentation. Ended up on a bus down Mass Ave., found the shop no problem, and met the friendly staff there. They had a stack of Stencil Nation books (1st ed.), which I accented with some original stencil art. We set up the laptop, AV equipment, the chairs, and then had a great crowd arrive. I’d say about 20 folks showed up. Had a friend from SF surprise me with a visit (she and her partner live in Boston now), and PIXNIT Productions spokesperson Vanessa Platacis showed up to help flesh out the Q&A session. Good times, great crowd, and sold books. Can’t go wrong. Decided to walk back to Cambridge and found stencils in the drizzle along the way. Saw some choice alleys off of one part of Mass Ave. that might warrant a bike ride visit tomorrow. Got word that Cambridge has a legal wall that may have stencil work, and also found a random PIXNIT spore that I might now have in her archive. Alex stopped by for the presentation too and said he thoroughly enjoyed it. Tomorrow will be stencil hunting time, on the bike if the rain isn’t too bad (I didn’t bring rain gear). Might go up to Montserrat College of Art to check out the group show that PIXNIT is in. That’s a schlep so we’ll see……..
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