David Ensminger
Art and Society
Prof. John Fenn
11 Sept. 2007 (re-edited 26 Sept 2010)

This Review is Shaped by the Discourse and Organization
of Edmund Feldman

When I poked around the corner of an Alder Street co-op last Friday in pursuit of documenting the plentiful and discordant street art that I noticed surrounding the alleyway of the building, a young lady dressed entirely in black sat languidly holding a ceramic coffee cup on the back porch. After a few minutes watching me photographing close-ups of beams, panels, walls, and doorways, she asked, “What are you doing?” I replied, “I am documenting the street along this section of the city for a class I will teach.” Little did either of us know that in fifteen minutes I would capture 70 images within six blocks, tracing a series of varied street art that embodies a frenetic, temporary, ‘living museum’ of the streets.

According to Feldman, the first step in a critical performance is simply “to see what is there,” which seems to reinforce what novelist and poet Jack Kerouac once said: “Stop only to see the picture better.” Street art located along Alder Street road, an area filled with student co-ops, sorority houses, cottage homes, and apartment complexes, includes: stickers placed on public street signs; foam cut-outs glued to metal street sign surfaces; a green plastic dinosaur toy placed in a flower box; stencils of phrases and figures; child-like naïve chalk drawings made with a variety of colors; etchings made in freshly poured concrete; graffiti that has been painted over or partially erased located on fences and brick walls; paintings ringing the sides of multi-apartment dwellings; and graffiti located on apartment support beams, industrial waste bins, post office issued apartment mail boxes, light poles, fire hydrants, and bus stop signs.

Secondly, Feldman asks a viewer to attempt a basic formal analysis, like addressing principles of color, space, and texture – elements of basic design. Very few of the graffiti examples expressed the features known as wild style, a form associated with the syncretic street style of the 1980s, replete with highly stylized “electric boogie” lettering, spashy, vibrant colors, and even Disney, comic book, or album art images. The Alder Street graffiti seemed more akin to tags: quick, territorial markings, off-the-cuff and hurried, in which form or utility (telling viewers “this is my turf”) is more important than artistic impression. Some of the street art utilized prefabricated materials juxtaposed against both municipal or domestic contexts. For instance, a sticker reading “End Racism” (plain black letters on white background) was posted on a bus stop sign, with its own minimal information (basic bus information) and graphics. A plastic dinosaur was placed inside a curbside flower planter, in the entrance to an art co-op. Also, green soft plastic stickers of a dinosaur were placed on yellow street signs and on a standard gray metal light pole, almost too small to be noticed. The panels of a house were transformed into a small tableaux featuring: a bright orange soft square, beige backdrop, some smudges of gray, and stencils of a 1970’s looking skinhead with the tag “The World Kicked Back”; a blurry stencil of the classical composer Bach with the pun tag “I’ll Be Bach”; and a star (that may be associated with Converse shoes) with the slogan “Alder Street Allstars.” This represents just one single panel.

Some of the graffiti, which was nearly removed in some sites, took on a ghostly hue and aesthetic, a kind of shadow presence marked by rubbing and very faint colors — hints of blue against a wooden fence and hints of black against a beige brick wall. In both cases, the art seemed to signify something beyond mere tagging. It reflected stylistic flourishes, including foamy, bubbly, loopy letters and brighter colors. Tags looked little more than paint drips or cursive writing on trash bins and utility poles. In addition, I found it hard to tell whether the graffiti on one of the official post office boxes was intended to match the slate gray color of the box, or if that effect was the result of an official cover-up. In either case, the paint formed a nuanced gray/white expressionism encircling the official eagle logo of the U.S. post office. The surface of the emblem was partially raised (perhaps in an attempt to remove it), making the work three-dimensional.

The third step in Feldman’s critical performance is for a viewer to engage art through interpretation, partially by locating a problem that the work seems to be addressing. The central problems the art addresses includes:

A) How do community members personalize or reclaim space in a relatively nondescript neighborhood that lacks vernacular touches?
B) How do they contest or offset domestic and industrial sites/spaces with vernacular touches?

The approach of the artists, likely not welcome by all residents, fits models already partly established by writers like Joe Austen. In the graffiti chapter of his book Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America, he argues such street art is a method by which youth, typically rendered invisible and marginalized by local power brokers, seize opportunities by “taking place.” In the case of the panels painted on the side of the house, the clever sense of play, inter-textuality, and pop sensibility is readily apparent, thus this “taking place” doesn’t have to be revealed by political slogans but through a colorful, though perhaps no less ideological, format.

As I recall wandering the street during the unusual heat of a Eugene spring, I try and engage Feldman’s last step in his critical performance overview – judgment. The aesthetic of street art is not necessarily tied to a sense of pure form and a quest for some sublime perfection, which might be a fine art standard. Instead, it projects a different vision of perfection — perhaps  outlined in works such as John Keat’s “Ode to a Grecian Urn.” He offers the lines, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” For me, the truth of street art lives within the vernacular, unsanctioned freedom of expression, and the empowering gesture, revealing at times crude, unstable, and “impure” forms. The beauty of these forms, or their merits, lies not within the final product as much as the process – the reclaiming, poaching, and cultural jamming, which reveals dynamism and democracy. By embodying and exhibiting such a process, the aesthetic and artistic merits are profound and profoundly distressing.

By J.W.

On the section of the bike path betwixt and between Willamette and Danebo, there is a plethora of canvases in which to choose from. Technically, but no formally, this section of Eugene is basically the industrial side. It’s easiest to find the back of buildings that no one would notice, or perhaps care to notice. There is also what could be called a “free yard” along the bike path where many hone their skills, a liminal space in which you are safe to create.

Walking along the bike path you see it is similar to a vein in Eugene, Oregon. In a green eco-aware city, there is much to explore on bike and foot, so many artist’s are writing their tags in a place that could be called a vein of Eugene. This is where visitors and Eugenians will see it, like a NYC railroad, artist flood this path with messages showing about limitations of space, constraints of youth culture, and life in general. But, unlike NYC, the bring people to the art, not let the art travel to the people. There is writing directly on the path, in the tunnels, on the signs, the barriers, even on the archways of water filled channels meaning that the artist would have had to hold him or herself above the water and tag and then climb back to safety giving an amazing amount of respect and prestige to the artist. This usually takes place within the dark of night, and therefore gives you a certain veil of anonymity, but since you are leaving your tag behind, you are hiding in the light.

Perhaps the best part of the bike path is the artist who you can follow throughout Eugene and watch them grow through statement and art. The artist “JC” usually tags around the Bethel and Danebo area only while “Pho cents” tags around the University of Oregon campus. But bar none, my personal favorite to follow is the writer “BSV/Rype”. When tagging to show contested space and owning of turf, he/she tags BSV and he/she has done so ALL over the city of Eugene. From south hills to campus, bike path and west 11th… he/she is everywhere. When making art, usually when he/she has more time, the name is “Rype” or “Rype1″, these can been seen on the side of a storage building off of Beltline, on 2nd and Blair, and the cemetery fence off of Roosevelt.

If anything the bike path is a communal stomping ground and a beginner’s paradise. Most of the time, pieces can go undisturbed for a notable amount of time therefore proving that this is a great place to begin as you are both isolated and noticed. There are beginnings and turf wars, a sounding board and free wall, the Eugene bike path encompasses everything it means to be a writer.

Folklorist Joseph Martin O’Connell just sent in this large-eyed view of graffiti in Indiana, which begs the question: does such graffiti operate within the same symbol systems and reference points as urban graffiti — the mediated context? Likely not, yet there still may be equal parts authorship, appropriation, agency, and autonomy imbedded not-so-latently in the work. Are these writers also “hiding in the light,” offering visual “booby-traps,” and creating DIY media? Perhaps re-colonized storehouses turned into bulletin boards of love and aspiration? Are they working within an alternative system of prestige, attempting to disseminate a sense of self and desire?

by G. M. R.

While most people today in America might not mention stencils when discussing graffiti, the rise of unsanctioned public stencil artwork correlates with the rise of graffiti in the 1970s. Cities like Baltimore, Maryland, New York, London, and Paris became the new centers for public artwork, and it is no coincidence that graffiti blossomed in age of political and social strife (Howze). In the 1980s and 90s, graffiti became associated with hip-hop culture, especially in connection with music. The most popularized form of graffiti was “tagging,” or insignia done free-hand with spray paint. Stencils were virtually left out of this popularized graffiti, and this exclusion allowed stencil artists to remain anonymous and outside of the public’s outcry against graffiti as vandalism: “street stenciling has less in common with other graffiti, being more akin to the samizdat tradition of poster and sticker propaganda…while maintaining its low-tech immediacy and independence,” (Western Cell Division, 2). Unlike a scrawled nickname in sharpie, stencils could be beautiful, funny, clever, or just plain invisible to the average person who didn’t know to look. (This isn’t to ignore the obvious artistry of tags, just an exploration into the reasons why stencils have been almost overlooked). Many businesses use stencils for their logos or on buildings, and stencil artists can carefully use this authoritative form to create works of art and protest. Today, the stencil remains an avenue of protest for anonymous, usually individual artists, although popular figures like Banksy complicate and elaborate on what it means to be an anonymous stencil artist who sells in museum art shows. Today, the medium of a stencil has entered into a new historical arena, one that operates within the dominant cultural hierarchy. Yet even in a small college town like Eugene, Oregon, the stencil serves as an ant-war protest within artistic images. The stencil’s clean aesthetics allow artists to “blend in” with everyday corporate insignia, to “hide in the light,” thus giving the stencil the ability to appropriate and offer social and political protest.

Why would an artist choose the means of a stencil over anything else? “Being a simple form of printing,” Peter Walsh explains in his essay “Mapping Social and Cultural Space: The Ramifications of the Street Stencil,” “stencils, and the cutting of a template, allow for the theoretically endless mechanical reproduction of an image and/or text” ( 2). Once the stencil is made, all an artist needs is paint, and it can be used over and over again. Spray paint provides a quick-drying, easy-to-carry solution when creating unsanctioned art in public spaces. Although the stencil may resonate with a “mechanical” sense in today’s society, it resonates deeply in human history as a means of art. Russel Howze discusses the stencil’s history as an art form in “Stencil Art: A Revolutionary Meme”: “At least 5,000 years ago, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia stenciled hands, boomerangs, and tomahawks onto rock faces by blowing colored ochre with their mouths” (1). While we may not completely understand the meaning of these hands, we can find examples of this behavior in our own culture, because every city has sidewalks with handprints in them. Stencils made of dried banana leaves were used to decorate cloth with Buddha’s image in Asia, (ibid). The qualities of the stencil, including the templates’ ability to be replicated, have kept human beings using this art form for centuries. In the past few decades, “the art form redefined itself,” and stencils became a unique form of social awareness in an urbanized landscape.

In the pressures of a consumerist American society, the stencil gives an artist the ability to appropriate part of the landscape, a landscape they most likely live in. Western Cell Division discusses the stencil in “Graphics and Ethnographics: An Incomprehensive Survey of Stencil Activism in Baltimore and Beyond”: “With the most rudimentary technology one can one can achieve a clean, hardedged graphic quality as user-friendly and “authoritative” as advertising copy” (2). With materials you can buy at any crafts store, an artist can create something truly artistic and subversive that can be replicated all over a city. While other forms of graffiti are quickly labeled by an audience as vandalism, “stenciling, by its graphic quality as well as its serial reproducibility, offers a perceived authority through anonymity comparable to the images of “official” culture,” (ibid). It is through this perceived authority that stencils have a unique ability to appropriate and create discourse in an urban consumerist world. The stencil has been associated with the cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s because its accessibility and simplicity allow it to do what other art cannot:
Stencil art belongs to the artist that doesn’t have a big budget of a larger organization or the more advanced skills that screen printers, graffiti artists, and muralists need. Unlike fine art, stencils live indoors or out, easily making the transition from canvas, paper, or metal to a factory wall or concrete sidewalk. It is art for the people, accessible by anybody with a thick piece of paper, a pencil, a sharp knife, an idea, some spray paint, and time for practice. (Howze, 2-3)

Stencils as “art for the people” give their artists the ability to start new dialogues for political and social change. In a crowded urban environment where cultures and ideas intersect, in essence a liminal space, the stencil is an easy means to say what you want to say and repeat it in multiple places relatively quickly. Perhaps the most important thing about stencils to study, then, is this trend of social and political commentary.
Peter Walsh calls stencils “beautiful little booby traps lying in wait, aesthetic gifts left behind as urban folk art, simultaneously revealing and concealing their purposes” (1-2). In the liberal college town of Eugene, Oregon, these beautiful booby-traps are found on sidewalks, PO boxes, and sides of buildings, visibly “hidden” in strategic areas around the University of Oregon and downtown. Excluding the exception of an alleyway between two art co-ops, the stencils in Eugene are found overwhelmingly on the streets and not in the alleyways. This placement suggests the artists of these stencils intend their artwork to be seen and discussed. Anti-war symbols abound; a monkey holding a gun and dressed like a soldier, cartoon representations of President Bush and Dick Cheney, and an artful Palestinian woman’s face, to mention a few. One stencil found on sidewalks had a swastika, cross, and dollar sign underneath “FIGHT FASCISM,” reflecting the community’s strong anti-consumerist discourse. Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike, is an alumni of the U of O, and a particularly clever stencil excorporating Nike’s logo is found around town: “Just Give Up.” These stencils all display an element of artistry and an attempt to criticize political and social conditions in the community and the world at large. Critiques of the war in Iraq provide an interesting way of informing or starting conversations, even if the viewer disagrees with the overall message. The Palestinian woman is an example of impeccable artistry and a socio-political message beautifully intertwined. Her expression is calm and warm, providing recognition of a marginalized voice in American society while inviting the viewer to connect with her, and humanize the “other.” While these stencils reflect the dominant social critique of the University of Oregon, they provide insight into the way stencil art is used to protest the current political environment.

While the stencil usually provides an artist with anonymity and complete distance from their work, the UK’s Banksy complicates this dynamic. Banksy’s work started appearing around Bristol in 1993, and recently has been featured in museum exhibits (not including the ones Banksy intentionally places his artwork in). Even Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought a few Banksy pieces, (Collins). Banksy has created a new frenzy around his work, and has also brought new media attention to the stencil as a medium. The New Yorker did an article on Banksy by Laura Collins called “Banksy Was Here – The invisible man of graffiti art.” Although Collins seems critical of Banksy’s ability to stay out of the press himself, she does call attention to his medium: “Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail. His aesthetic is clean and instantly readable—broad social cartooning rendered with the graphic bang of an indie concert poster” (Collins 2). Banksy’s entrance into the fine art world would seem to have distanced him from his simpler street-art roots, and yet his ability to stay anonymous seems to have allowed him the credibility of a street artist in a museum setting. Banksy’s work (see below) is reminiscent of what I found in Eugene, both humorous and deeply political. In today’s politically charged climate, the stencil is a unique means of creating a message and getting it seen and heard by an audience in an artist’s specific area. Stencils are easily transported, allowing them to be taken to other cities, states, and even countries (Howze). Everything about the stencil gives it a distinct power over other means of graffiti as a means to begin social change. For marginalized voices in the underground of urban America, graffiti art and the stencil are opportunities to be heard, and in Banksy’s case, even get accepted into the mainstream art world. With a stencil and spray paint can in hand, the artists of this new century will usher in a wave of street art and political protest.

For a large photo survey by G.M.R. of Eugene-based stencil work, please see:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nligett/EugeneStencilArt

Works Cited

Collins, Laura: “Banksy Was Here – The invisible man of graffiti art” http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_collins?currentPage=all

Howze, Russel: “Stencil Art: A Revolutionary Meme” from www.stencilpirates.org

Walsh, Peter: “Mapping Social and Cultural Space: The Ramifications of the Street Stencil” from www.stencilpirates.org

Western Cell Division: “Graphics and Ethnographics: An Incomprehensive Survey of Stencil Activism in Baltimore and Beyond” from www.stencilpirates.org

by J.R.

Graffiti can be complex, beautiful, dynamic, and controversial, but even more interesting than the art is the artists themselves. To create without desire for fame or recognition, knowing that the art will be removed or painted over, is an admirable trait credited to all graffiti artists. For my project, I decided to document the graffiti behind a local tattoo parlor. A wooden fence that runs about 30 feet long, in an area that is only open to employees and hardly ever viewed by customers, is completely covered with various tags, doodles, and giant murals behind the High Priestess Piercing and Tattoo parlor on 13th St. The artists go behind the store and tag while on smoke breaks or in between appointments. The wood of the fence is covered in layers and layers of paint; once the artists run out of space, they simply go over the old stuff. A 5 gallon bucket full of spray cans lies by the door, and every so often one of the guys will pick up a few more cans to replenish the stock.

The first 25 feet or so of the fence is dedicated to small tags, pictures, images and designs that are done in no more than 5 minutes, including a large hand with an eyeball in the center of the palm, a bunny with red lipstick and a bow, a jack-o-lantern, and approximately 30 different graffiti signatures repeating on top of or in between the images. Next to this stretch of sprayed scribbles and doodles is a sanctioned area, a brick wall where a mural that stands about 6 feet high and 10 feet wide resides behind a small flowerbed. The mural depicts images of nature: an old twisted tree beside what could be either mountains or ocean waves. Given the location of the mural, a place for the artists and employees to relax on their breaks, it’s assumed that the imagery within the piece is purposefully adding to the serenity and calmness of the surrounding environment. The various plants and flowers underneath and beside the mural create an even more natural appeal. If it weren’t for the patterns of the brick under the paint, you would think that the mural was on canvas. A spectrum of colors, shapes, and designs makes the mural unique in content and technique.

The most interesting thing about this area is that it is not directed towards any audience. The artists create purely for the sake of creating, and the public never sees it. To dedicate as much time, effort, and money for supplies as a piece of this size and skill requires is evidence that the artist behind the mural is not only dedicated to his work but that his creative ability is inspired and motivated not by money, fame, or prestige, but by the act of graffiti itself.

In talking with a few of the guys around the parlor, I found that many of the tattoo artists began their art careers as graffiti artists. It was only after they had been caught a few times that they turned their art addictions into productive (and better paying) jobs as tattoo artists. I learned that this was actually pretty typical of a lot of tattoo artists, not just these guys, and that a genre of tattoos reflecting this synchronism were becoming more and more popular as the graffiti and tattoo communities became closer. “Tag tats” are tattoos that actually look like graffiti. From bubble letters to ink drips, these tats exemplify the synchronicity of street art and tattoos. The fusing of these two diverse cultures is beneficial to both sides; the tattoo artists get to keep doing graffiti (only on skin instead of train cars), and the graffiti artists get to have their work on them forever, safe from city council removals. The best part is, street art is being recognized and admired by a vast amount of people, and though they may not be able to buy their favorite murals or pieces in galleries or museums, there’s always a guy with a needle waiting to tag it on your arm at the parlor. So, instead of seeing an artists work travel across the country on train cars or subways, now the form of graffiti migration also includes people. The more individuals there are that decide on a graffiti tattoo, the more people in all scales of society will come to accept street art for what it is: an empowering, reflective, and selfless form of art that signifies the voice of a culture that is otherwise being ignored and undermined.

www.dictionary.reference.com states that a stencil is:
(n) a device for applying a pattern, design, words, etc. to a surface, consisting of a thin sheet of cardboard, metal, or other material from which figures or letters have been cut out, a coloring substance, link, etc. being rubbed, brushed, or pressed over the sheet, passing through the perforations and onto the surface;
(n) the letters, designs, etc. produced on a surface by this method;
(v) to mark or paint a surface by means of a stencil
www.etymonline.com gives the etymology of the word “stencil”:
(n) 1707, not recorded again until 1848, probably from Middle English “stencellin” – to decorate with bright colors, from Middle French “estenceler” – cover with sparkles or stars, power with color, from “estencele” – spark, ornamental spangle, from Vulgar Latin “stincilla” from Latin “scintilla” – spark.
(v) “to produce a design with a stencil” not recorded until 1861

The definition of the word “stencil” does not include spray paint as a method of stenciling, yet overwhelmingly the street art form in Eugene is dominated by the quick-drying, cheap-to-purchase medium. We can tell this as casual observers from the clean, even lines and “mistakes” seen in the stencils around town – like over-spray and blurred edges – mistakes that probably result from the artists’ need to quickly lay down the stencil and leave. The stencils that I’ve documented with photographs around my neighborhood, located just west of the University of Oregon, are unsanctioned public art that I will try to analyze in this report. As the etymology of the word suggests, a stencil is a form of ornamentation, a local decoration of communal space for the inhabitants of that area. The stencils I found in my own backyard range from comical cultural references, to political statements, to beautiful pictures, and creative mixtures of all categories. Rather than casually dismissing these stencils as vandalism, I suggest that the creators of these decorations are trying to form a very communal dialectic, to inspire wonder, laughter, awe, or even anger in their neighbors. The root of the word stencil comes from means “spark,” and these stencils are meant to spark conversation among a college setting, without the prohibitive boundaries of a teacher and classroom. The stencils in my neighborhood reflect the audience of a college town with cultural, political and social messages interspersed among fun and aesthetically pleasing figures, proving the multiplicity of meanings this art form creates by mixing the personal with a public space.

Eugene Oregon spent the better part of 2008 gearing up for the Olympic Track and Field trials in July. The city spent vast amounts of money “beautifying” its streets, building new businesses and buses, and, of course, cleaning up the graffiti. During my field research I noticed more PO boxes and dumpsters were painted over than not, and most buildings in the area had noticeable spots where “clean-up” efforts occurred. Many stencils only survived because they were aesthetically pleasing, or they were located in a street art-friendly area. It’s hard to discern some images as stencils, since they are subject to the elements and many exist today as barely legible stains on sidewalks and buildings. I have chosen stencils that are easy to identify and read, but some stencils I am familiar with and though they are faded and worn, and I have also included these in my research. Since the Trials were held at Hayward Field, located right on the U of O campus, these clean-up efforts included my own neighborhood. I live on 17th and High Street, about five or six blocks from campus, surrounded on all sides by houses and apartment buildings occupied by students. Every day I walk to school, and I noticed the decreasing amount of graffiti as the Trials drew ever closer, so I wanted to do a report on the remaining and new stencils in my immediate vicinity. What surprised me about my research was how many stencils I did find and the quality of the art available to me in such a small research area. Because these stencils are located in such a concentrated area of student housing so close to the university, I believe they were meant for a college audience. We could call this a “liminal space,” or a space between the college community and the rest of the city of Eugene. Students and teachers at a liberal arts school like the U of O are appropriate targets for unsanctioned public art, especially if it “sparks” political and social debates. The stencils were rarely in alleyways; instead they were “hidden in the light,” on post office boxes, buildings, sidewalks, and curbs, meant to be viewed and contemplated by a relatively small audience. This is Do-It-Yourself Media at its finest, meant to be taken in and enjoyed on a daily basis.

The first three stencils I had originally hypothesized to be by the same author, and sure enough, on 15th and Patterson I spotted the woman with headphones, the Palestinian woman, and Harriet Tubman all in a row together on a private skate ramp. I asked the locals if I could photograph it, and they were sure to inform me they didn’t create those stencils, that “some girl came by one day” and did all three together. (Interesting to note that all three were two-color stencils, suggesting that when she has time, or the art is sanctioned, she can do a more elaborate job.) This supports my original hypothesis, although I believe now that many other stencils, including women’s faces, are done by the same artist as well. I’ll be documenting the stencils with pictures, a description, location (street and what it’s on), color and technique, as well as the over-all wear and tear.
Neighborhood Map:

Headphones and Cig: (4 total)
Highly stylized (looks like anime to me), futuristic or sci-fi look with goggles and headphones, very detailed technique for making stencils by cutting a face in half, also suggests focus on a woman’s face/future. Cigarette looks hand-rolled and is dangling, woman’s eyes are closed. She looks like a superhero, maybe an “everywoman” of the future. Found with Palestinian Woman and Harriet Tubman, told they were by the same “girl,” suggesting the artist does have other intentions for the stencils than aesthetics. Directed at a youthful audience through the use of style.
• Mill btwn 16th and 17th E side, on PO box, blue one-color
• 15th and Patterson NE corner, on private skate ramp, blue and white two-color (with two other female-faced stencils, suggests same artist)
• 15th and Ferry SE corner, on PO box, black one-color
• Mill S of 15th, on electric box, blue one-color

Palestinian Woman: (4 total)
Highly detailed and very realistic, resembles Shepherd Fairy’s work. I named her “Palestinian” because she’s wearing a keffiyeh, or Palestinian scarf. Suggests a more personal or direct message than the stylized anime woman. She seems to be smiling, or wearing a calm expression, with a lot of detail around the face but only a few details for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Calls attention to another part of the world, and marginalized voices within that world. Humanizes the “other” and could also serve as a kind of “everywoman” to identify with. Directed at a primarily liberal, overwhelmingly anti-war audience, reflecting and analyzing the community’s already present discourse.
• 16th btwn Ferry and Patterson S side, on PO box, black one-color
• 15th and Patterson, on private skate ramp, black and white two-color (with others)
• Mill Alley S of 15th W side, on dumpster, black one-color – dumpster suggests that what we waste, forget, and throw away doesn’t just consist of things, but people and cultures
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black and white two-color

Harriet Tubman: (2 total)
I call this one Harriet Tubman because I think it looks like her, but I could obviously be wrong. Very detailed, found rarely as compared to the Palestinian woman and girl with headphones, but also found once with them on 15th and Patterson. Design and location suggests they were done by the same artists, and some “informants” told me a “girl” came and did them all one day together. Represents historical figure of a marginalized woman with a voice, also mysterious because it’s hard to tell who she is. Author’s aesthetic features marginalized women and beautiful pictures.
• 15th and Patterson NE corner, on private skate ramp, black and white two-color
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black and white two-color

Madonna-ish: (2 total)
It’s either Madonna, the girl from Dirty Dancing, or someone the author knows – either way, she’s mysterious. The face is very detailed, a woman staring straight at the audience, probably white. Not necessarily marginalized, could be a self portrait?
• 15th and Mill, burned house on the corner on a garage door, black and white two-color
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black and white two-color

Arab Woman: (1 total)
Again, I call this the “Arab woman” for lack of a better name. I found her only once, with spray paint laid over her, and possibly an Arabic word written on her forehead. Very detailed and realistic, the face is in profile, not facing the audience. Has an air of mystery about her, who she is, and what her meaning is.
• 16th and Alder N side, on wall, black and white two-color with red tag

Fight Fascism: (4 total)
The swastika and dollar sign become “linked” with the cross, which almost looks like an “and” symbol. Simple stencil making. Equating the Nazi symbol with all of Christianity and capitalism as a whole seems particularly targeted to a liberal arts school audience. Very political and social, very anti-government. Most of them are illegible and well-worn on the sidewalk. Definitely meant to “spark” debate.
• 17th and Mill SE/SW, 2 corners (both sides of street) on sidewalk, black one-color faded
• 17th and Ferry SE side, corner on sidewalk, black one-color faded
• 17th and High SW side, corner on sidewalk, black one-color faded

The Squid: (4 total)
Highly detailed, long stencil located on sidewalks. Again, many are faded, although I do have pictures from last August of the squid new. Seems to be more for aesthetic value, to create humor in a common public space like the sidewalk. Also could make the viewer “rethink” the space, suggesting alternative environments and species like those underneath the sea. (Some of my favorite ones!)
• 16th and Ferry Alley E side, 2 next to each-other on sidewalk, black one-color faded
• 17th and Ferry SE side, on sidewalk just past corner, black one-color faded
• 17th and Patterson SE side, on sidewalk, black one-color faded

Pigeons: (4 total)
Sometimes alone, sometimes along with other stencils, the pigeon gets complicated with the messages located around it. Three of the four pigeons located with violence, like “Snitches get Stitches” and “Don’t Feed the Pigeons,” suggesting the pigeon stands for someone who “snitches” to the authorities. The lone pigeon, and the pigeon in “crosshairs” or the view from a gun’s sight, serves as a reminder that nobody likes a snitch. Most stencils seem fun or beautiful, this is one of the few that feels threatening.
• 17th and Ferry traffic circle, on sign, red one-color pigeon (alone)
• Ferry btwn 15th and 16th W side, on PO box, black one-color (“Snitches Get Stitches”) – pretty graphic warning against telling authority what you know
• 16th Alley and Alder, 2 pigeons on window panel, one-color white and one-color orange, with crosshairs (“Don’t Feed/The Pigeons”) – Don’t feed the stool pigeons information?

Boy Kneeling: (3 total)
Very detailed, located near a Geisha face much like the women’s faces, suggesting by the same author. Hair covering his eyes, a scowl or snarl on his face, he gives an overall feeling of uneasiness or discontent. His posture kneeling emphasizes the fact that he’s a child. Realistic but could be an anime-stylized picture again.
• 16th and Mill traffic circle, on traffic sign, black one-color
• 16th and Ferry Alley, on raised curb (with Geisha), black one-color
• Mill Alley N of 17th, on a fence, black one-color

Mario and Friends: (5 total)
Nintendo characters can only be traced back to 1984, so the audience that will recognize characters like Dr. Mario and the Shy Guys is limited, mostly confined to younger populations. Meant to entertain, remind the viewer of their childhood spent playing videogames. Perhaps meant to criticize this instant recognition of videogame cultural references over, for example, historical figures? Shy Guys sometimes done in two-color.
• Dr. Mario – 16th and Mill, on electric box (on a sticker), black one-color
• Dr. Mario – 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black one-color
• Shy Guy – 15th btwn Mill and Ferry, on PO box, black and white two-color
• Shy Guy – 16th and Alder NE side, on wall, black and white two-color
• Shy Guy – 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black and white two-color

Tiny Man’s Face: (5 total)
Not very detailed and very small, about the length of your thumb. Wearing sunglasses, hair parted to the side, and wearing some kind of suit. Supposed to be dressed up and “cool looking,” very slick. Size and detail look like a small woman’s face on a nearby PO box with “W.W.J.J.D?” next to it.
• 15th Alley S side, on dumpster, black one-color
• 16th near Alder N side, on wall (with others), black and white two-color
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, three faces total, two-color, black and red, black and white, and black and blue

Kodama Tree Spirits: (3 total)
As represented by the movie Princess Mononoke, the Kodama are tree spirits that represent good luck and a healthy forest. In Japanese mythology, the Kodama lived in sacred trees, and cutting down one of these trees meant seriously bad karma. By placing them around a town, suggests a way of bringing good luck and representing that your town is healthy. Also suggest a specific audience, slightly aware of other cultures, as well as an affinity for nature.
• 16th and Alder N side, on wall (with others), black one-color
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black one-color
• Outside Lillis building in back on campus, on trash can, black one-color

Army Chimp: (2 total)
I had to look back at an old picture to make out what this was. A monkey holding a gun that looks startlingly like a man, except for the feet and face – a stencil so faded its meaning was almost lost, except I have a picture from a year ago with the stencil in perfect condition. Very detailed anti-war stencil, seems pretty humorous at the same time.
• 15th Alley btwn Mill and Ferry, on sidewalk, black one-color faded
• 16th and Ferry SW side, on sidewalk, black one-color faded

Green Face: (2 total)
Could be a man’s face, but looks more feminine to me. Found this stencil only twice, right near each-other. Could be evidence of an artist trying it out? One was very hard to see and had obvious “drips” from the spray paint can.
• 17th Alley btwn Patterson and Hilyard, 2 faces, one on a building, one on a fence, green one-color

Dove: (2 total)
This symbol typically represents peace, and goes along with many other anti-war messages in Eugene. There used to be quite a few of these doves around my house, but I only found two during my research.
• 17th and Mill NE side corner, on sidewalk, blue one-color faded
• 14th Alley and Kinkaid, on dumpster, black one-color

Marijuana Leaf: (2 total)
Perhaps it speaks for itself, but being such a little stencil it can be added to others, like one that is “inside” a stencil of the state of Oregon. Eugene is known for a weed-friendly culture, so perhaps this reflects common communal discourse about Eugene and an affinity for the substance.
• 15th and Patterson W side, on a fence, green one-color
• 16th Alley and Alder, on window panel, black one-color (inside a stencil of Oregon)

Miscellaneous Text: (4 total)
I found many examples of stencils containing only text, some like “Just Give Up” are cryptic messages appropriated and excorporated from Nike, and some like “You Are Beautiful” just serve as delightful messages. Here are the few I found, with some pictures.
• “Peck the System” – Patterson N of 17th W side, on PO box, red one-color (reminiscent of the pigeons?)
• “You Are Beautiful” – 15th E of Hilyard N side, on apartment building, black one-color (message to people in general, or perhaps the whole neighborhood; uplifting)
• “Dial 541 if you want the truth” – Kinkaid N of 15th, outside PLC, on sidewalk, blue one-color
• “Just Give Up” – 16th btwn Ferry and Patterson, on sidewalk, black one-color (excorporation of Nike slogan “just do it”)

Miscellaneous on 16th Alley and Alder: (23 total)
This is what I call a “street-art-friendly place,” because it is located conveniently between two art co-ops. It could also be known as “liminal space” for this same reason. The dumpsters are covered with art, and apparently Sanipac doesn’t mind. There are stencils here that aren’t anywhere else in Eugene, which is why I created a separate category for them. They aren’t necessarily aimed at such a wide audience as some of the other stencils.
• “W.W.J.J.D?” and face – 16th and Alder N side (not the alley), on PO box, black one-color
• “Non-Sequitor” – 16th and Alder N side, on wall, blue one-color (sequitor is spelled with the “e” and “q” together, and the “u” and “i” together)
• “Your Life Beckons” and stick fig: 16th and Alder N side, on wall, red one-color
• 3 black leaves – on window panel in 16th Alley, black one-color
• “Penny” and woman on tricycle – on dumpster in 16th Alley, red one-color
• “There Is No Away” text – on dumpster, red one-color
• “Taze First, Ask Later” – on dumpster, blue one-color faded
• “Alder St. All-Stars” – 2, one defaced with “sucks,” on wall and window panel, black one-color
• “Hack that Sack” – on wall, black one-color
• Militant Children – 2, on wall and window panel, black one-color
• Bike parts – 2, on dumpster and wall, blue one-color
• Black tree with swing (or noose) – on window panel, black one-color
• Skull – on wall, red one-color
• Hand – on wall, red one-color
• George Bush – on wall, red one-color
• “G” Snakes – 2, on walls, black one-color
• “The World Kicked Back” and boy – on window panel, black and white two-color
• Homer Simpson – 4, on walls and window panels, 2 crossed out and 2 with donuts, black one-color
• Jimi Hendrix – on window panel, green and black two-color
• Robot – on window panel, multi-colored and white in the middle
• Angry Spray Paint Can – on window panel, black one-color
• “I’ll Be Bach” – 3, on window panels, black one-color
• “Dick” Cheney – on window panel, black one-color
• Oregon State – 2, on window panel, green one-color and pink one-color (green contains marijuana leaf, pink contains a heart)

Miscellaneous Figures:
These are the other stencils found only once around town.
• Sailboat – in front of Knight Library doors, green one-color faded
• Flowers – 15th and Hilyard, on PO box, three total, red one-color
• Dynamite – 17th and Mill traffic circle, on traffic sign, red one-color
• Skeleton hand giving finger – Ferry btwn 15th and 16th, on pillar of a house, black one-color
• Geisha face – 16th and Ferry Alley, on raised curb with boy kneeling, black and white 2-color

If an unsanctioned stencil implies ornamentation as well as vandalism, it already carries a multiplicity of meanings along with it. So many of these stencils represent historical figures like Harriet Tubman, or particular cultural references that the viewer must “get” before the stencil’s meaning is clear. Because these figures are aimed at a college-aged audience, many of the cultural references, like Dr. Mario, Shy Guys, or the Kodamas, are directed at a specific age group. Still more of the stencils, like the Palestinian woman, Army Chimp, and the Dove, are all aimed at spreading the socio-political message of anti-war. Then there are the curious pigeons, which seem to be supporting an idea of violence unlike their anti-war counterparts. And some seem to just be for fun, like the little men’s faces, angry spray paint can, and the state of Oregon. Just because something is “for fun” doesn’t make it any less important to the health and vibrancy of a space, indicating the necessity for a “politics of pleasure” in Eugene’s college district. I think of the suburbs and I can’t remember one stencil like the many I’ve found during my research in Eugene, and I am glad to live in a place that supports this kind of art, if only in certain areas or by cleaning it up so rarely. These stencils have provided me with a wonderful escape from the monotony of daily life, and the more I notice them, the more I begin to find. These little “sparks” are meant to start something, to be the catalyst of a thought, discussion, or an explosion of feeling. As Peter Walsh points out in his article “The Ramifications of the Street Stencil,” stencils are “beautiful little booby-traps of information lying in wait, aesthetic gifts left behind as urban folk art, simultaneously revealing and concealing their purposes,” and it is up to the audience to determine what these booby-traps are meant to signify. Because these stencils are most likely done by students for a student (and possibly teacher) audience, I believe it is important for us to take notice and attempt to understand the art we are surrounded by every day.

Figure 2

by J.B.J.

For my project, I chose to look at the differences between male and female graffiti art. I primarily looked at tags and murals. What I found was that there were not so many differences between them; however, they did have a few distinctions. I did my research primarily on the web and I looked through a lot of different pieces of art and picked the examples I thought would best represent the differences I found in them.

Figure 1.

The first piece is a mural done by a male artist. (Figure 1) This piece shows many darker colors that make the piece look very intense, with a very detailed image at its center. The next piece was done by the female artist Toofly (Figure 2) and I chose this one because it shows some of the differences between male and female artists. The piece in Figure 1 seems to be more intense, and the colors appear to be darker colors with light colors used as highlights (yellow and red and brown for the background and blue and green for the letters). In Figure 2, the colors are softer, and appear lighter overall, with dark colors used to show shadow.

Figure 3

Figure 4

While one of the main differences between these two pieces are the colors, you can also see in the male’s piece that all of the people are men, while in the women’s piece the subject is a woman. The following pictures show some more examples of this trend. Figure 3 was done by a man and it clearly has a male as the center focus of the piece. Figure 4, however, was painted by another female artist, LadyPink. While some of the colors are similar to the previous piece done by a woman, the focus of the piece is a female, and the feeling of the piece is also very different from the one done by a male. The male piece appears to be more serious, or maybe even “thug”, while the female piece appears more up, happy, or fun.

I also noticed that there are some differences in the way men and women throw up tags. In Figure 5 the male artist uses the same color but just different shades of it. I chose this one because it shows the creativity of the artist in just writing a message. In the following female piece (Figure 6), there are a lot more colors than in the Figure 5, and the colors used are softer, lighter ones. Both artists have shown a great deal of creativity in their work and though they are different in color, they use a similar graffiti style, even though one is imbedded in a mural and the other one stands alone.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

In the time I spent doing this project, I learned that even though a lot of graffiti may just look like vandalism, it is really an art form. I also learned that there are many differences in the way the color is placed and how the message is portrayed. Finally, I also learned that while there are not that many differences between male and female street art, there are little differences that can sometimes allow you to tell if the art was done by a male or a female.

by L.H.
Art is the product of a passionate creator; it defines the nature of an individual and his or her contributions to the culture. Though generally not defined as art by mainstream culture, graffiti is the passionate outcry of artists determined to unsettle and challenge the status quo. Throughout this presentation, I will explore the significance and presence of graffiti in Brazil by utilizing my experience and research from my trip to Brazil in October of 2006.

I spent three weeks traveling through Brazil on a mission to explore a new culture and to discover how graffiti is perceived in the South American culture. Through my research, I found that graffiti art is a significant aspect to the visual culture of South America, especially in Brazil. It is not only accepted but also embraced by surrounding community because is provides valid social benefits that unite the community by igniting a common passion. Facing little to almost non-existent consequences, street artists beautify the liminal space of the derelict streets of Sao Paulo. Graffiti is prevalent in almost every imaginable place in Brazil; however, it is most present in Sao Paulo.

In Brazil, graffiti is recognized as a widespread artistic form of self-expression. Graffiti allows artists to illustrate their soul to an unlimited audience to develop a sense of identity. Through the convergence of several Brazilian artists, Sao Paulo has developed its own identity as an internationally known centre for inspiration in the graffiti subculture that engulfs the world.

The first photo is a representation of the Brazilian agriculture. It illustrates the different layers within the culture, which is vary radiant in color and depicts the essence of Brazilian culture. The intent behind the piece is significant to the way Brazil is perceived due to the passion with which the colors explode off the wall. This piece is very aesthetically pleasing; it symbolizes the unique characteristics and dimensionality that comprise the country.

Since Sao Paulo holds the reputation of a highly hazardous city, it is not considered a to be a city that attracts tourists. Due to this, many shy away from the city and miss out on the true beauty that is hidden within the depths of poverty. Graffiti is essential to the well being of Brazilian culture because it provides a way for a community to escape the disheartening surroundings of a discombobulated metropolis. Street Art is meant to bring out the true nature of a culture. It is utilized in Brazil as a way for a community to unify themselves and project social messages by appropriating their surroundings through a collective consciousness.
The second photo above signifies the strong love and pride the people of Brazil have for their country. This piece is in the middle of a very dreary and colorless ally way, in which it adds a vibrant more comforting sense to the viewer. It is a piece symbolizes the devotion the people have for their country. It is a visual scapegoat that is used to overcome the repression that surrounds the city of Sao Paulo. In order to combat oppression, one must de-familiarize oneself with ones surroundings, which is what I think the artists’ intention was behind this particular piece.
Moreover, since Brazil is a not a flourishing economic country, it has a very strong “Do It Yourself” culture. Therefore, the people have the agency to express themselves freely while having complete autonomy over the way Brazil is perceived because graffiti is the language of the people. It is all about the creative motive that is expressed through the piece. The goal of the artists is to leave a mark on an exotic space that depicts a certain message to the viewer. Through a collective consciousness, the people of Brazil have created a participatory culture that is open-minded to all perspectives and ideas, which in return unifies them as a culture.

“ Marginalized group articulate subculture sentiments that should not be discounted, for tomorrow their ideas could be influential. Certain groups may be in decline, fighting to survive, while others may be formative stage, at tempting to establish an identity and carve out a political space. Whatever the came without of means of popular communication, organizations are deprived of their social identification, ” states (Chaffee 26). Similar to the Graffiti Boom in New York in the 1970’s, the lack of income and extreme chaos due to the government, Brazil has become the new shrine to street art. As seen throughout history, when a government fails to support its people, it results in a series of rebellion. Due to the impoverishment in Brazil, certain economical and social strain is what has driven the people of Brazil to act out. This lash of rebellion has resulted in a vivid artistic explosion. It has become the “folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised”(Manco 10). Graffiti is not necessarily illegal in Brazil for two reasons. First, it is too expensive to for the government to support graffiti removal. Second, there are much greater crimes to imprison people for than street art. In addition, it produces a positive social reaction that unites the culture by igniting a common passion: the desire to overcome poverty.
Furthermore, graffiti has become a not only accepted form of art but a significant symbol that represents Brazils identity on a global scale that will continue to flourish for years to come.

For my fieldwork project I decided to look at two bars in the “Barmuda Triangle” of Eugene – The Horsehead and John Henry’s. The reason I focused on these two bars is because of their diversity. Each one has a wide range of people who frequent them and I felt the Latrinalia would reflect that diversity.

What I found was completely different from what I expected to find. I thought there would be a plethora of jokes, dialogue, and commentary on political situations. While I found a few of these things, the writings were much more varied.
One of the funniest I saw was an add-on to someone’s original comment, which read “Love is the answer, spread it around,” and the add-on read; “Herpes is the answer, spread it around.” I also noticed that girls tend to spread more warnings in their bathrooms. There were Beware-tags about different guys or labeling one, or another, an “asshole.” I also saw some lyrics and a lot of tags involving the Emerald City Roller Derby Girls. This made sense to me because these two bars are their hangouts.
The men’s room was completely covered with every imaginable kind of graffiti. They had spray paint tags, stencils, paint pens, stickers, posters, chalk and carvings. I found one tag that was in both bars and it read, “You Are,” possible to reassure the world that we are, that we exist. It brought to mind the saying “I think therefore I am,” but perhaps it should have read “I tag, therefore I am.”
The use of individual authorship and appropriation of the space is amazing. I highly recommend anyone interested in Latrinalia go to these bars and observe, firsthand, their dialogue. I asked the owners of John Henry’s about what they thought of all the tags and they told me that when they first opened the bar seven years ago they put up the first tags so it is definitely a tagger-friendly establishment. One can find every kind of medium used in grafitti. See you there and remember…talk, talk, talk.bb

by M.M.

Urban graffiti’s uprising in Manhattan, New York in the 1970s and 80s was promoted in many different ways as artists showed their abilities away from the canvas, trading for any surface available. Large populations of young traggers in New York were able to show their work of graffiti art, stenciling, and tagging as they pasted the city’s subways cars. This canvas was known as automigration as art was then given the ability to show throughout town, border crossing from urban ghettos to downtown Manhattan. This underground culture of tags involved much of New York’s urban populations but quickly grew to a larger crowd as all riders of the underground metro were exposed to the spray painted murals.

With a white-cop force retaliating against the ethnic taggers, politicians became involved as well, with Mayor of New York City, Koch, promoting the slogan “Keep subways white”, expressing a message of racial undertones to his ethnically diverse community (“Crimes in Style”). As the subways helped for exposure of the tagger’s then, street art now is still seen throughout transportation, especially with cars. Starting with simple bumper stickers with quotes of irony and activism, cars are now covered with DIY and customized paint schemes, preaching the agency and autonomy of the driver through an artistic drive-by glance. Seeing two particular cars in my fieldwork, I came across two very different forms of automigration on two trucks. Both parked outside of apartment complexes, blocks from each other, were the paint jobs of professionals and local teens, each displaying their talent on a moving gallery.

The first truck seen was a newer Ford truck model with a professional airbrush art of a snowy mountain pass with wildlife creatures. Seeing this truck in its condition persuaded me to think that the owner was wealthy, as the vehicle looked hardly driven, with its tailgate painting of fresh paint. I saw this truck as an ironic form of convergence culture as I saw a gas-guzzler, exporting a serene nature image, reminding his of her viewers of the simplicity of life, as he or she remains just as apart of the corporate world. The second truck I came across was of opposite proportion, as it parked, vacant with flat tires and complete with work of the local DIY culture as the community came together to tag it. With multiple artists working on the truck, the colorful fenders and doors drew attention of all those passing by, promoting itself as a potential canvas, reading, “Tag Me” in bright yellow spray paint. As this vacant truck transformed from unwanted space to a place of artistic independency, local dwellers of 13th Street appropriated the new accessory as their own, taking total control of the truck, as it became their art.

A huge part of automigration is the way space is used. Although the mark is permanent, location is not, changing everything about the piece. The liminal space becomes a large backdrop to the possibilities of art, as the regulations of your space may travel into new boundaries, more or less excepting of the artistic behaviors. Automigration takes the concepts of private space and introduces the art into a public space through travel, allowing any eyes willing, to see.
Looking at street art through this course has made it obvious exactly all the ways we incorporate daily art into everything. Our need to accessorize has become apparent in our world and street art has been at an advantage since promoted. Seeing most street art from the luxury of our cars, it was only time that this art transferred onto our hoods and tailgates to show all our followers. In many forms this art of automigration can be seen today as drivers accessorize their murals with lights and tires, as well as custom paint jobs. Automigration has been a large promotional tool in street art because of its convenience for its audience of mainly commuters, transforming as transportation becomes more popularized. These forms of automigration will only become more popular as transportation does and as liminal space of car and road becomes more of a public sphere.