Adopt a Street Stencil Project with Seattle Public Utilities

Nov 20

Written By Angelina V.

is a love letter documenting my murals and community partnerships. Please enjoy!

What a wonderful project! Jenny and Jen who work for Seattle Public Utilities approached me to design 4 stencils for their Adopt a Street program in helping business beautify areas affected by vandalism. The city provides paint for businesses to clean graffiti, but who wants to see brown and grey everywhere? Not I! So I immediately went to work thinking of some fun little designs we could use for this project.

I really like sharing the process of how some of the projects I participate in. Opportunities like this make art more accessible to the public, especially community forward work like these stencils, but sharing the process allows art-MAKING accessible. And this is really the core mission of my work. I want other people to do art, to make careers of their passion, and to live their best life using their artist voice to make this world a better place for all of us. Once you learn the language of art, music, really anything that lets you use your creative brain you can process so many things while you’re in the creative state. I firmly believe art making truly heals and this is the number 1 reason why it’s so important to have in schools. Kids need an outlet to process their emotions in other ways than just using their words, because if you don’t have a handle on language, you won’t be able to communicate to the adults in your life that something is wrong. So, art in schools good, grey and brown paint bad. Moving on.

For design, we went through about 4 rounds of edits to get to the final designs. Initially I proposed we do something that celebrates a certain theme, like native flowers or birds. But they loved them all so we decided to do one of each. You can see the progression of the designs below, how they evolve with feedback. It was truly such a pleasure working with Jen and Jenny. They were so enthusiastic and supportive.

In this project I used my iPad Pro and an art program called Procreate. I have an Apple Pencil I use that I nowadays cannot live without. I’m a gadget girlie so I use a a few accessories to make iPad life a little easier. I use a case with a built in stand that helps me draw easier when sitting. And to give the illusion and feel of drawing on paper, I use a matte glass cover with a little texture. I find that the tip of the Apple Pencil glides a little too loosey goosey without it so this helps with traction. And it’s always nice to have a few of the Apple Pencil replacement tips around in case you burn through your tip and are left with the little metal peeking out against the nub. You definitely don’t want to be drawing with that because you risk scratching your iPad glass. Lastly, I have a cute pencil silicone wrap for my Apple Pencil so if I’m drawing with other pencil havers, mine doesn’t get mixed up AND she’s extra cute! You can check out the rest of my little Amazon storefront for more of my favorites I use in my studio here.

We were also able to take these babies for a test drive and paint the exterior fence of The T.C Spirit Village in the Central District. Staff from The Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), Seattle Public Utilities, and members of the village community came out to paint really making this small act of beautification so much more special. There even were cute dogs on the scene to make us all smile. I brought some fun colors from my spray paint collection to really make the stencils popped. You know Anti-Static Neon Red had to make an appearance! Tan with LIHI and I even discovered if we painted a dark color first, we could then add little squirts of color to really make the images come to life.

And with only 5-6 people painting we were able to make quick work of the fence. Really, the simple act of spending few hours really made a difference in how viewers will see this community. Housing accessibility is a right and everyone is deserving of dignity and respect when public art and safety are involved. It made me so happy to bask in the glow of us coming together.

Portfolio Entry

If you’re interested in one of these designs, reach out to them via email: adoptastreet@seattle.gov

There’s also a Volunteer Graffiti Paint Out webpage with more resources.

Pro Tip:
I have a little a page on my website with product recommendations. I love sharing the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years and the products that work for me. Give it a gander and see if anything resonates with you to make your art life just a little easier.