On my way to school this morning on The Orient Express, I pulled over on a non-descript street in a run-down part of Lincoln Heights, the same street I drive down everyday, to add the cream to my McDonald’s large coffee. As I was stirring, I glanced up and saw something of such heartbreaking beauty that I almost cried. Really. On an old wall whose bottom half has been graffitied and painted over a hundred times in a different shade of blue, I saw these magnificent shadows putting on a show.
This building is some sort of enormous laundry. Great puffs of lint blow out of the windows and coat the poor trees. But in the morning light the white and startling blue wall and black shadows were pure visual poetry. Luckily I had my camera with me. I wanted a stick of charcoal and a ladder so I could trace these lovely shadows on a giant piece of white paper, skip work, go straight home, and wallpaper my bedroom.
But I didn’t. I made these pictures instead. Now they are etched onto the walls of my mind
So I’ve been playing with stencil portraits. Cutting, then spraying them. It’s all I want to do. I only have a few pages left in my current visual journal and at the rate I’m going those pages are destined for stencil portraits.
Nevertheless, I am more than pleased with my portraits. I keep going to look at them in my journal and every time I grin like a jackal and clap my hands together. I’m starting to scare the cat posse. The only problem I can see with my new-found hobby is that I want to stencil EVERYTHING with my portraits. I mean I even discovered how to do it in my neighborhood. But I’m way too nervous. Plus Mama Moss would be so disappointed if her 44-year old daughter got thrown in the slammer.
Little Black Kitty did an excellent tutorial last week on HER blog about how to make a self-portrait stencil. She suggested I make one of myself wearing the gas mask. If I had the proper software to turn a photo into an image suitable for stencil cutting I might consider it. I wouldn’t want to scare people though.
This was the last page I did before the portrait fever hit. I’m working on a sacred heart stencil. Someone who DIGS sacred hearts as much as me really needs their own stencil. Don’t you think?
oh my, i’m so behind, lots to read! i’ve been on the road and just started to get caught up on my blog reading. love seeing all your purty pictures, ‘specially the one of you in THE MASK! hope you got a giggle from it, and have been using it on days where it isn’t too hot outside cuz you need to protect your lungs but not at the expense of passing out from being under that rubbah.
kiss cheek left, kiss cheek right, missed ya.
beautiful photos and yes, very cool the stencils. I think I will have to try this in my own journal soon. I’ve never tried anything like stensiling, but it might be fun, do you need to spray paint it? hmm… got to study this more I think.
What a yummy post! screaming over here *#)@)*(@ amazing (you can use your imagination on the symbols I typed heh!) Now…Deb has the most devious idea! Love it! But make sure you do a drive by photo shot of it! ;o)
These are just to die for MA. I could gaze all day.
…i attempted to post a comment after viewing this blog entry last night…but apparently I fainted::::::: ’nuff said.
stop already!!! you’re killing me!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am just LOVING your blog!!! LOVE the latest stenciling ideas AND your most recent journal finished…. *sigh* GORGEOUS! 😀
Those shadows are mesmerising! That LA light must really be stark. I admire your eye for these things, you seem able to inject a little creativity into everything you do.
Maybe you could stencil onto sticker paper for some street art, I always thought it would be a good way to surreptitiously place something on a wall while passing by.