Stenciling

"More street artists are turning to stencil art's speed, efficiency, and neatness as a means of expression. All it takes is a piece of cardboard, an X-Acto knife, and a can of spray paint to pose an idea or tell a story with the potential to change the gait of pedestrians and make them stop and think."-San Francisco Weekly

Without a doubt, stencils are the fastest, easiest, and cheapest method for painting an image on a wall, a sidewalk, or practically anywhere. Stencil Nation focuses on the unexpected mix of this lively, accessible medium-from famous artists including Banksy to international street stencils and gallery shows-to reveal engaging aspects of an intentionally secretive creative community.

With dynamically illustrated perspectives from the niches of the art form, female artists, documentarians, and the growing online community of the international scene are featured in this fresh collection of photographs and essays curated by StencilArchive.org's founder, Russell Howze. New artists, often utilizing stencil art in unconventional ways, are also featured.

Stencil Nation also represents the art of lesser-known urban scenes, including Poland, Romania, and Israel. Additionally, Stencil Nation builds upon previous published works to give the most extensive and up-to-date history of stencil art, as well as how-to tips from the artists themselves.

Russell Howze is the curator of StencilArchive.org. He lives in San Francisco.

Not only is Buckingham and Bird's approach ingenious, but their designs are stunning, and greatly varied in style. They fill walls with schools of tropical fish, a soaring Pegasus, peaceful landscapes, an airborne snowboarder, the cow jumping over the moon, a dozing tiger. Doors sport faux wood inlay, a gliding ocean liner, desert scenes. Glass can be "etched" with elegant stencil designs. Floorcloths feature cobblestones or swirling art nouveau designs. Every room in the house is fair game to these two, and not only in the house: one of the authors lives aboard a boat crammed with stenciled surfaces. This volume is both a marvelous source of inspiration and a practical, beautifully produced how-to guide. --Amy Handy