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This is a stencil and a finished piece from a stencil art class for high-schoolers that I recently designed and will be teaching. I just started a new job where I'll be a painting instructor at an art and wine bar called YOUnique Expressions. If you're ever in the Castle Rock, Colorado area, you should come check us out. We've got daily fine art classes for people of any skill level and a relaxing, social atmosphere that's especially conducive to first time painters feeling comfortable with a paintbrush and canvas. If you wanna register for the stencil art class, click here, or just go to our event calendar where you can register for all kinds of painting classes.
As for the concept behind the above stencil art, I knew I wanted to do something about snowboarding, but I also didn't want it to look entirely predictable. So at first I thought that it'd be fun to do something inspired by retro snowboarding, those under-celebrated days in the 80's when bright colored snow gear and constantly evolving snowboard designs ran rampant. Then I realized it'd be more interesting to somehow mesh that true history of snowboarding with a sort of fantastical revision, picturing a snowboarder in the same garb as certain skiers from the late 19th century, an innovative yet gentlemanly folk adorned with handlebar mustaches and a stately gaze (for example, these gentlemen). Thus, in order to span that great gap in history, I made a piece that samples together tidbits from an assortment of eras. For the background I made a collage using photos of 1980's snowboarders and text from 1960's posters for an art movment called "fluxus". Then, for the overlaying stencil art, I have a late 19th century gentleman observing the expansive landscape of snowboarding history through the lenses of late 20th century snowboard goggles, strapped around a modern styled beanie. Fantastical yet historical, no?
