Stencil Workshop at the Taller la Chicharra

I just took a week long stencil class with Oaxaca artist, Marcos Lucero. Marcos combines a variety of techniques and mexican motifs into his fantastic artworks. He is part of the Taller de Chicharra, a printmaking studio in Oaxacas centro district. In the class, I learned to to design an image, using ‘bridges’ and ‘islands’. We drew our designs on acetate with markers, and made projectors to enlarge our image, using cardboard and the light from our cell phone. after cutting our stencils(lots of cutting) we applied them with spray paint. Stencils are useful because they use simple materials, and let you quickly repeat a design on a variety of surfaces. Stencils are popular with street artists. I made 2 stencils…the first was a celebration of the rainy season in Mexico. I was able to get a variety of different effects using the same stencil.

The second stencil was a grasshopper, or chaupalin, as they say in Mexico. This stencil uses two templates…one for the color of the silhouette, the other for the details.

not only did i learn a lot from the workshop, but I also got to meet other artists, watch them create new work, and practice my Spanish. Muchas gracias a Marcos y el taller chicharra for the lesson.