Last Stencil Show of Aught-nine!

Strong Medicine Stencils is inordinately pleased to announce the hanging of some stencils at Organized Play- The Comics and Gaming Source for Downtown Knoxville! (221 Cumberland Ave. Knoxville, TN 37902)

Y'all come!

Mention "Seagal" for a free stencil of Steven Seagal's face! For serious!

human expression as belief system

This look is a philosophy I strive for to integrate into my gestalt.







Pictured is the final three-color stencil, the virgin black layer, and the original source art.


“Leave the world to those who hanker after it, as they leave the Afterlife to its seekers. And be in this world as the bee: it eats only good, produces only good, and when it rests upon anything it neither ruins it nor deflowers it.”

Dead stolen vulture

“Leave the world to those who hanker after it, as they leave the Afterlife to its seekers. And be in this world as the bee: it eats only good, produces only good, and when it rests upon anything it neither ruins it nor deflowers it.”

Rumors and Conjecture

The art show went really well! There was scads of free wine, and I actually sold something (the bloody sarah palin). Good times.

“Leave the world to those who hanker after it, as they leave the Afterlife to its seekers. And be in this world as the bee: it eats only good, produces only good, and when it rests upon anything it neither ruins it nor deflowers it.”

Stencil of epidemic proportions

Yes, yes, yes. This afternoon I celebrated my temporary freedom from the terrifying drudgery of being paid to go to school by, you guessed it, cutting the hell outta some mashed up tree flesh. I present you, ladies and gentlemen, with swine flu.



Dredged up from the foul depths of a sick and decaying mind (a request from a friend of mine in Knoxville) it was probably the most rapidly executed design I've attempted yet, from conception to gestation to birth a mere hour and change.

Seriously, though- don't panic. Everything is gonna be all right.

Two men enter, one man leaves

Okay, quick synopsis. I started my summer a week early this weekend, and managed to belt out two sweet new stencils, as I need to deliver the goods to the gallery by this wednesday. Depending on time constraints, I may try to cut another tomorrow, but I'm not promising myself anything. So, I'm really excited. I may actually be able to make a good go of it at this gallery thing.

The first one I did this weekend is titled "Hermaphrodites unite!" and is all about worm sex, and the second one of the dude with the gun I haven't thought of a pithy name yet. Suggestions, anyone?

One love, kick ass, take names.

Rising Sun Bottlecap

Art Show Announcement!

Hell! Awesome news! Looks like I'm going to be putting some of my non-art into a rock art show here in Knoxville. It's gonna be held at the Midtown Art Center on Friday, May 1st- part of Knoxville's 1st Friday whatnottery.

The building is located in Downtown North, kinda near Old Grey Cemetery (on Cooper St.).

According to the organizer:

"We're hoping for this to be an art and music event. I need a few more artists to show their work. We're seeking punk art: loud, colorful, provocative. If you or someone you know fits this description, send them my way.

Here are the details:

Depending on size, we're asking for 8-10 pieces per artist. This location has a security system. Your work should be fine. However, if something does happen to it (i.e. lost, stolen, damaged), we are not responsible. Show at your own risk."

Ha! Punk artists should be so lucky to have their artwork stolen...

You have to pay $10 and 25% goes to the gallery (or whatever), but hell! Still pretty sweet.

The folks putting the show on are looking for at least 7 more artists.

Interested? Contact Lee at carnivalights@gmail.com.

Going commercial

Folks, the economy is definitely hitting rock bottom. Just this week, I myself got notice that my stencil kiosk in the square has been bought out- lock, stock and barrel- by the government as part of a bailout and resettlement agreement. I have to pack soon for the train to Alaska, where I'll be employed as one of thousands of 'professional volunteers' to toil without end fighting waves of rabid armed russian peasant-women during the daylight, and by night digging oil harvesting pits with our horribly mutated, claw like fingernails.

A rat

Yeah! I did a big stencil of a rat! The only other living soul who's seen it so far has been my mailman. I used my second-to-last posterboard up making it, so I ripped up some old janky pairs of pants and did it on them instead.

“serious genetic transformations” due to the “biological war”

I got down to biznis after the cheese dropped me off at the
casita this morning. Fueled by music, cold pizza, residual adrenaline from taking a math test, beers and herbal cough drops, I whipped ass and got two larger stencils done for the protest tomorrow morning. The theme is, 'TVA and COAL, SUCKAS'. Limited edition prints are available for $5, plus s&h. Send cheques to my offshore tax haven in the Sechelles.

So, for those of you who just crawled out from under a rock, it's game time in Knoxville this weekend, pitting the largest of the large versus the smallest of the small. Naturally, I'm referring to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) going to bat against burgeoning negative public sentiment. It's literally the little people against one of the most endless wastelands of poppycock legalese. TVA is a vast, soulless legal construction and it has been badly attempting to hide like an 800-lb scuttling cockroach underneath the furniture; it's tried the rug, under the couch, and is currently lurking among the potted plants on the shelf closest the window.

Unfortunately, even cockroaches get lice, ticks, what-have-you, and especially nematodes. The pissed off public is kinda like those nematodes. As the cockroach (TVA in this case) squishes and squashes with seemingly rabies-induced wild abandon over the public land, homes, rivers, and future of the southeast, it consumes and absorbs parasite eggs (in this case, anyone screwed by TVA). The end result is a sick cockroach, given enough time. (see really graphic dissection of a cockroach, complete with internal parasites.)

Eventually, the little buggies will reproduce enough, munching on the internals, and will get to the brain (or numerous nodes of ganglia) of the beast, and it will change its ways. It might fall into the toilet. Or come out when the lights are on and get hit with a newspaper. OR, it could begin to steer it's coal and nuclear-centric obsessions into paths such as energy conservation (most important) and renewable energy.

I personally hope TVA takes over NASA, becoming the Tennessee Valley National Aeronautics and Space Authority (TVNASA), and builds a bunch of solar power satellites. Once they own the entire Earth, they can begin the eugenics programs they always discuss at board meetings.

Fascist Front Group Revealed!

I suggest everyone read, or look at the pictures from the book, "Daydreams & Nightmares" by one Winsor McCay. It's amazing.

Stencils have gotten very little attention lately, grad skool seems to have caught up, and it's been time to fry the bacon, so to speak. There are about ten ideas in the pipe, plotted and ready to go. It's a pity I can't throw everything away and just DO it. If I was capable of knitting together the spare hours I waste, it'd be done. However, i'm only as efficient at time management as I am at utilizing atmospheric oxygen. Which is low, for the typical individual around 7% (oxygen efficiency).
Anyhow, I rebelled against work and inefficient slacking and really got down and did absolutely nothing for a few hours. This produced two small ones tonight to take to the Mountain Justice Spring Break camp this weekend. Mountain top removal strip coal mining blows chunks, and hopefully these two symbols will become the icons of a new revolution that will sweep this nation and I, soverign of the homeless masses and young unattached males of the world (not in that way), will drive a convoy of volvos to overtake the nation's capital in a military coup.


I HEREBY DECREE as SOVERIGN:

1 The turkey is the symbol. Ben Franklin was right.

2 There will be a four-tiered system combining the best aspects of public education and the prison/industrial complex.

3 The motto all must live by will be, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Voting will be compulsory and there will be strict term limits. Taxes will be collected from deep ocean thermal vents.

4 We will launch a bunch of stuff into space, build solar power satellites, colonize the moon, invent faster-than-light travel, and finally meet GOD at his private beachside resort.

5 Kids will be allowed to be kids, and do dangerous kid-things. Similarly, you we be allowed to thoughtfully endanger your life. Merry-go-rounds shall be reinstalled in playgrounds. Railings shall be reduced by 75% worldwide.

6 We will learn from nature. "Better bent than broken" will be digitally inscribed onto tiny radio transmitters and forcefully inplanted into all teenage humans who the benevolent state determines 'shouldn't' be sterilized. The transmitters will allow all humans to function together as a giant, perpetual radio telescope. This will further the goal of fa ster-than-light t ravel.

7 All time machines shall resemble phone booths.

8 Giant robots with guns for arms will end, once and for all, wars, corruption, and being a dick in traffic.

Cross-pollination: Knoxvillain~Hellanta

This weekend was extremely promising for my minions and I. We scared up several location possibilities for the subterranean blimp hangar, press ganged some dozen new volunteers, and sprinkled mind-altering parachute-deployed pamphleteers throughout the metro Atlanta area in the guise of crushed velvet street preachers.

We also created several new prints to subject the cowed citizens to, with the added benefit of coloring the frames, which improved auxon-bending potential by an impressive 76%. This may offset the overspray and overdrips caused by excessive atmospheric humidity during the paint application process. If I can nurse my knife hand through these next few months, a public show might be a possibility.

Additionally, forays into Knoxville's volcanic underbelly have turned up a race of soot-stained men who FEAST ON WELDING SPATTER. I met their god/chief and he might let me stencil his wrecked nissan.

Dead flies tell no lies

Tribute to Belka and Strelka

Belka and Strelka were two of the dogs used in the soviet space programme, which paved the way for manned flights. They were blasted into space on Sputnik 5 on August 19, 1960 (following shortly the fatal flight of Laika on November 3, 1957). They survived (go soviet union!) and Strelka actually had a bunch of puppies, so she's still around somewhere today.

This is my really small tribute to small, innocent animals being locked into huge rockets and chucked into space.

Go science! Do a thing!

First in Show

Yeah! Me and my entourage (see this video for details) put up a sobering helping of non-art in the Grotto this afternoon. It's pretty impressive, but keep in mind that the arrangement is the product of committee thinking, and therefore is hopelessly mired in its own self-importance. So, it's actually not that important. However, if you stare at a blank spot in the middle of all the pieces and move towards it, there is a hidden message, and that message might be important, if you're the kind of person who relishes knowing the exact method, time, and day of your shuffletude from yourn mortal coil. In related news, I heard that there is a strip club somewhere in the US of A where, in order for the business to stay in operation, the 'entertainers' must continuously quote Shakespeare to the limp, brainless 'guests'. I didn't make it up, but the person who told me may have.

Ready to transmit

Man, it is dog dingbat cold in the outside. It was so cold and windy, in fact, that I had to set up in bano mio with a respirator to make sure the air molecules didn't play havoc with my airborne paint molecules. And, as you may see, it yielded the succulent fruit of success. Note the clean, crisp lines. The lack of (much) 'fuzz', 'backscatter', or irrationality. This is pretty much as good as it gets. A plethora of COLOR! A feast for the senses. And all of it I give to you, my wide, wide adoring audience. I've even taken it a step further...

Allright! It's a GO! I'll be setting up a small corner of the Grotto's expansive wall tomorrow afternoon, as part of the United Mountain Defense Fundraiser. All proceeds will go towards ending Mountain Top Removal and TVA/ evil fossilcorp's reign(s) of terror. Prices TBA.

First Light

The colors are dominating powers looming for space, without enough rival powers to keep them in check. We'll see how it goes. I'm out of poster board, so these may be the final ones that I put up and perhaps put up in the grotto for UMD's fundraiser/ TVA sux wall this Friday (or today?)

Virgin Newbie and Dear Leader concept

This is my newest stencil, completed last night before I went out to a punk show to 'recuperate'. There is something intrinsically wrong about 'virgin' stencils, something akin to seeing a deadheading semi (for you non-truckers, a deadheading truck is one cruising along without a trailer.) Anyhow, here it is, complete with reference trace marks. I'll get motivated and present the final 'product', maybe tomorrow. I'll also reveal the source. I'm a shameful thief. Eh.





This puppy is a pretty happy camper. Usually ideas I have don't make it to the 'ready to trace' state. Most are stuck in a horrible limbo, sandwiched between photos of solfugids and Yangtze river dolphins, or something similar. I love you.

Let's have a party

This is how I party. The book there is what I'm using as a portfolio. Very professional. The respirator is just for show, as i'm hopelessly addicted to spray paint fumes. There really isn't much of a difference between the expensive stuff and the cheap-o, though the companies involved want you to think so. From time to time, you'll find a few dented cans of poppy-colored 'afghani special' in the back of the local hardware store (that's really good stuff) but beware- one dude I know got some imported especial from Iraq (he knew a guy in the service) and it ended up being some of Saddam's leftover mustard-colored sarin, used for spraying deadly graffiti on US troops.

Last of the single-color stencils

Stencils are: medicine. And if single-color stencils are headache pills, multi-color ones are a big shot in the butt. Besides depth, multicolor stencils have more personality, take more time, and require a bunch more effort (time=effort?) like effort in planning and time to actually render. Looking at the internets can quickly show you how ridiculously involved, or just how massively huge multicolor stencils can be. Some of the best i've seen are mural-type things put up by folks like logan hicks, peat wollaeger, pixnit, tiago denczuk, etc... How they do it, I don't know. Seriously, either the devil really gets around swapping souls for skillz, or many of our compatriots are highly advanced plastoid humanauts made of copper wiring and positronic brains.

I've been trying devote most of my stencil-making activities towards multicolor designs. Thus, these are probably some of the last single-color designs i'll do. They just can't hold a candle how awesome the other ones are. Fuzzy parts are where the stencil lifts up from whatever you're spraying. I'm working on it; work in progress.