Friday ProFile: Encore

Creativity isn’t always about making something new; viewing old material from a new perspective can lead to interesting results. Back in 2006, German street artist Encore transformed a Sonic Youth album cover into a stencil. The result led to him further down the rabbit hole. Today, he’s got street art down to a science. “I think there are two phases in the process of my works,” he says. “First, I stay at home, searching for new motifs, printing and cutting stencils, painting stickers, poster etc. Then, I go out on the streets painting, sticking, pasting.”

Some people might not enjoy the planning stages of a project, but Encore makes it fun. “The first phase certainly takes the most time and I am often working alone. But I am very thankful to a few persons who always help me with answering my questions like ‘Which color would you take? Which frame, which size, which photo?’ They spend the evenings with me cutting, painting, talking, watching TV, drinking and smoking! Without them, cutting would often be so boring.”

After the planning comes adventure. While he lives and works in Freiburg, he loves traveling around and sticking everywhere. “Most of my work is actually put up here,” he admits, “but I think 95% of it are simple stickers. I try to achieve a huge quantity, because I think this is one important aspect of techniques like stencils, stickers and posters: copy and copy and copy your motifs until the multiple color layers destroy your stencils. I try to combine my everyday life with street art! Going to work, shopping, or partying? Always take some tiny stickers with you! I hate the moments when I see a nice spot and haven't any stickers with me.”
Encore doesn’t just stick to stencils and stickers. Recently, he played around with abstract paintings and collages. “I like to try out many different techniques of making stencils, but that results always in quite different looking pictures,” he explains. “Last month, I made some really extensive stencils which should look like a kind of photorealism style with strong black / white contrasts. But the cutting is so exhausting and it takes quite a long time without seeing any results, so I feel the need to do something else besides stencils.”

This willingness to experiment means Encore’s ready to branch out in the future. “Next I would really like to try out screen prints,” he says. “Some people planned to do a workshop to practice but nothing happened. I have to phone them again. I have always been inspired by Warhol’s screen prints. He is something like an idol for me. My first stencils were often copies of his screen prints, so I think it would be a nice thing after doing stencils all the time in the last 4 years to go back to the roots, now with the right technique.”

Thanks, Encore! More photos are right over here at his Flickr. That's all for now; I'm ready for some 85 degree weather and plenty of outdoor activities this weekend. Mix that with some sleep and you've got the perfect weekend right there. See you Monday!