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  • Writer's pictureStelleconfuse

Skam (U.S.A.)

Brother in Sticker Art: Skam

Stickers in the street from: 2004

City: Portland (Oregon)

State: U.S.A.



1 - Introduce your sticker art project

I started skam in 2004. I am from a small town in north dakota which is in the middle of nowhere in the united states. The war in Iraq was in full effect and i for one did not support it. The people of the small town I was from did. This caused me to feel very alone in a big world so I started doing stencils on stickers of people who i thought were scams. I did bush, clinton, bill oreilly, the pope,etc.

I started reaching out to people on the internet since where i was no one knew anything about stickers or sticker culture. In 2006 I noticed a trend on myspace happening. It was how sticker artists were making a character and then having other artists do their versions of it or a collab.

In 2007 I created the skam character. An ignorant looking redneck with an arrow exploding on the other side of his head. I wanted to create a character who looked uninformed. The idea behind it is that the arrow represents ideas or skams. The other side of the characters head exploding represents reality. like if you knew something you so strongly believed in was a lie it would blow your mind.

My first stickers were printed off a computer since i really didnt know what i was doing then I started doing stickers on label 228s with stencils. I moved to portland oregon in 2011 and started connecting with other local artists who taught me how to block print and silk screen my own stickers. All my stickers are done in a diy way. The reason why stickers are so appealing to me is because you can give them to anyone and everyone loves stickers. little kids, old folks, etc. I have been apart of the gallery scene and I have to say putting your art where ever you want is liberating. You dont have to listen to anyone but your own heart. Currently in 2019 I am still producing my own stickers and art. My work has infiltrated pop culture, books, magazines, movies, art galleries and peoples walls. I would have never thought i could make over 500,000 stickers in my life but i have and i'm super grateful to share my thoughts and ideas with other people.




2 - In what creative ways have you collaborated with other sticker artists?

I've collaborated with artists digitally and in person usually at my studio. I've sent my skam character to hundreds of artists who have done their take on my character. Some of my favorite collaborations have been with Twigs inc, Narcoze, Voxx Romana and Rx skulls. Twigs and I usually shoot emails back and forth of our collabs until they are completed. Voxx romana and I have done collaborate designs mixing our stencils together and creating one of kind collaborations.



3 - Have you ever organized an event about sticker art? If not, you can write something about an event you have attended

I am the sole creator of the Sticker Nerds events and their joke sequel events Snicker Turds. The first Sticker Nerds event was in 2010 with about 15,000 stickers. The second event was in 2011 with about 40,000 stickers. The third Stickers Nerds was in 2014 with about 80,000 stickers. After Sticker Nerds 2 the local community would throw smaller sticker events called Snicker Turds. Some of the sticker combos have lived on. Some of the objects we did combos on were labtops, computers, tvs, toilets, walls as tall as 40 feet, Cubicles , and one blow up doll. We had wide spread support from all over the world. Stickers are super nerdy so all the nerds came out of the wood work. 



4 - What are your future projects in the world of sticker art?

Sticker Nerds 4? Maybe???? Throwing these large events are alot of work. Takes months of planning and lots of money. Finding the perfect venue is very hard to do. Portland has a graffiti task force and puts pressure on galleries that encourage sticker/street art/graffiti culture. Every week i send stickers all around the world. Its something ive been doing for 12 years and i dont plan to stop. 


5 - What sticker artists do you admire or are important to you?

There are so many important ones all around the world: D7606, Starheadboy, Robots will kill, Teacher, Voxx Romana, I will not, The figure head experiment, Twigs inc, Nite owl, RasTerms, Stelleconfuse, Coon, Indecline, Asinine, and CTDZN.



Contatcs:

Instagram: skamsticker

Facebook: Stahler Skam

Flickr: SKAM sticker


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