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Unexpected art: Stencil graffiti

Blog: Culture Check

November 21, 2009

Stencil street art, the graffiti of choice for lazy revolutionaries, has been around for quite awhile. But now someone (or a bunch of someones) here in Chelan and Douglas counties is taking the time to mix and blend colors into fairly artful and even tasteful stenciling in offbeat places. I first noticed it about a year ago on a backroad in Douglas County, but have since seen it at campgrounds up the Entiat Valley and trailheads near Lake Wenatchee and Blewett Pass. The sets of images vary from place to place, but always include a penguin. (Anybody know what this represents? Or is it just a cool-looking image?)

I last spied the stencils at the bridge and trail in the Chelan River Gorge, that wonderful side jaunt above Chelan Falls. Yeah, yeah, this is defacement of public property, but this graffiti also has a bit of mystery to it that's most intriguing.

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douglas 2 years, 2 months ago

Unexpected art: Stencil graffiti

I don't like the idea of defacing property, but in Detroit the city took an abandon railroad line and turned it into a bikeway. If you click on the link then scroll down to the video, you'll see that the graffiti art was preserved on the walls and bridges of the trail. Some of the stuff, although illegal, can be very beautiful.

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/05/22/dequindre-cut-travel-the-motor-city-on-a-bike-path/

joanne 2 years, 2 months ago

Unexpected art: Stencil graffiti

I can see the picture now: It's the interior of the Cave at Lascaux, France, ca. 15,000 B.C. A large, club-wielding man is scolding two young people. Caption: "What are you doing, defacing the walls of this cave. Remove those pictures at once."

Mom 2 years, 2 months ago

Unexpected art: Stencil graffiti

The Barcelona Sants railroad station has artful graffiti on both sides of the tunnel as you enter the station. I don't know if it was planned or appeared but it has remained. And, if we think graffiti's a problem here, it's nothing like in Europe where you find not so artful graffiti all over the cities and any parked railroad car.

irwin 2 years, 2 months ago

Unexpected art: Stencil graffiti

I'm surprised at the widespread appreciation of grafitti, both local and international, and certainly thank everyone for all their comments. I didn't know a penguin was the Linux logo, but I do know that Linux fans are often anti-corporate, anti-monopoly, anti-BigBiz. Matched up with the gas mask stencil, it all sort of makes sense in a mysterious "12 Monkeys" sort of way. (Grafitti foretelling social change.)

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