Author Archives: Dina Sage

If you want to get your art, political message, logo or just your name out there, stickers are the media of choice to reach the masses. Slap tagging – or sticker bombing – has been a viral art medium since before the internet even existed.

Spray paint or a marker takes time and increases the chance of being caught. Stickers can be slapped up quickly. It is mostly an urban art form that focuses on walking, public transit and public spaces where people wait and look at their surroundings.

Stickers are easy, cheap and can be made at home in bulk or printed at the local print shop. Priority Mail stickers can be obtained for free from the post office and make a great surface for drawings or tags. Sticker artists often trade their work with each other to expand their distribution.

Some slap their stickers next to friends’ stickers to say hello, or they place stickers next to better-known artists to get noticed. This is called spot jockeying or side busting.

Portland is a hub for slap tagging and, over the course of the past decade, has elevated Portland to be the sticker capital with Alberta and Mississippi districts having high concentrations. That’s because both have specific walls that are popular with local and national sticker artists.

Like other forms of graffiti, slap tagging can be seen as an unsightly nuisance that contributes to the negative impact on livability. Others see it as a form of chaotic and free human expression – an attempt to reclaim boring environments or public space.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation spends an average $42,000 a year on cleaning street signs and helps coordinate community volunteers to clean graffiti.

There are also individuals who take the task upon themselves – which can end up stripping the reflective surfaces off street signs and rendering them illegible at night.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette, holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org

After seeing friends share photos of themselves standing in front of wings painted on walls, artist Stefan Senna was inspired to direct his talent toward a public purpose.

Stefan lives on the section of Alberta Street designated as a bike corridor. “After the last year and a half being so challenging on everyone, and me having my own experiences, I decided to focus on things that would be fun – things that make me feel good.”

The artist got to work painting wings cut from wood, with each set in support of or to acknowledge an aspect of local culture. The first set in the Freedom Wings Project are dedicated to equality and freedom for all people of all back–grounds, race, gender and identity.

The second set, the Butterfly Wings Project, is dedicated to all of the teachers who helped students traverse the challenges of the pandemic. Stefan is currently working on the Flying Fish Wings Project, in honor of beautiful oceans.

The Phoenix Wings Project comes next. “I asked my teenager which set of wings would be a good symbol for all of the challenges that our kids have faced during the pandemic,” he explained. “His response was the Phoenix. It seemed fitting.”

Stefan intends to install the wings from 70th to Mississippi avenues, and a map of the wings is part of his final plan.

The artist is seeking residents on the south side of the bike corridor streets to host sets of wings. To participate, contact him at StefanSenna@gmail.com, or help fund the project GoFundMe.com/f/cku8w4-wings-of-freedom.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette, holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@AlbertaArtWorks.org