All posts tagged: John and Yoko

The Simple Street Art Stencil: Cut To the Truth

“All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth” – John Lennon

John Lennon, a guy who lived in the eye of a hurricane of hype for a major portion of his adult life once screamed at the top of his lungs for something called truth. At a time when we are condescendingly shouted at to give up our previous conceptions of personal privacy for security and cookies, naked air travelers and torture victims and spillcams and spreadsheets and state secrets are now streaming live via the world wide buffet and everybody is seeing more truth than they were ready for.

Amidst the data storm, something about the simple, uncluttered straight-forward real deal is straight-up appealing. Maybe that is why the one layer stencil, however ornate it can be sometimes, is an enduring favorite of street art fans and artists. Effective visual communication doesn’t have to be fussy, filigreed, or high-falutin’, and some would argue that it takes real courage to let one stencil do the simple truth-telling.

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C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Care (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nothing To See Here Sir Carry On (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bishop 203 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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American Family With Red Son (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Ghost of tax cuts past. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GILF does Betty White? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Joe Franquinha Peace and Sport (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Silver Ghost (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Um, nice socks.  Olympia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Look who’s on the TeeVee. Sunset Boulevard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Poison Rabbit (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Walt Whiskers Alley Cats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Reading under the learning T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death in NYC… We love you John and Yoko.

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