First off I have a major conflict of interest in this story because I am the secretary of the Melbourne Stencil Festival. And as the secretary I have a warped and biased perspective mixed with exhaustion. I don’t want to be spruiking for the festival or telling the inside story.
Melbourne Stencil Festival exhibition
I could try and report the facts: the winners, the speeches, how many people attended but I didn’t take notes. I know from the door prize raffle that there were over 200 people through the door before the speeches started. I don’t want to make my own speech here. I introduced all the speakers last night: the curator Tessa Yee, the Mayor of the City of Yarra Amanda Stone, Stencil Festival President Phil Hall and the representative from the judging panel Craig Kenny. Craig Kenny announced the award winners:
Emerging Artist Highly Commended
Ben Howe “Centipede”
John Koleszar “Big John”
2009 Emerging Artist Award
Boo “Our Lade of the Transparency”
Best in Show Highly Commended
Pslam “Once a… Always a…”
HaHa “Ned Kelly” & “Nicky Winmar”
2009 Best in Show
Civil “Playground”
I can’t remember all the details. I did take my camera, so here are a few photographs.
DrewFunk painting opening night
DrewFunk's wall the completed
HaHa, Phil Hall, Amanda Stone, Ben Howe, Boo and Craig Kenny
Boo, Avid Consuming
I hope that I will be able to write more about the stencil festival when I recover.
Black Mark 