Category — DIY

We’re shoe people. Seriously, the husband and I have a ridiculously overstocked closet of shoes. And, living in Portland, Ore. (home of the two biggest athletic footwear companies in the world), that means that a huge amount of those shoes are snazzy sneakers. Oh, yeah, we love us some fancy kicks here in Stumptown. So, of course, these “Hope & Change” sneakers from flickr user out of the boudoir caught my eye immediately.

These white Nikes are painted with “Hope,” “Change,” “Yes We Can” and a variety of quotations and musings.

You can check out a color version over here.

Rachel gave us the heads up about these sweet Chucks that are for sale on Etsy right now. (We don’t normally feature for-sale items, but these are totally fresh.)

When I saw this beautiful stencilled skateboard photo by STENZSKULL pop up in the Obama Craft Project flickr pool, I could hardly contain my excitement. You see, while I’m not a skateboarder myself (although I do own a sweet longboard that I can stay upright on, believe it or not), I believe deeply in supporting facilities for skateboarders, and eliminating the ridiculous anti-skateboarding laws which abound in many, many cities and towns across the U.S. Really, skateboarding is not a crime, and skateboarders are very often the victims of harassment and stereotyping. Skateboarding, like my other favorite sport of basketball, can be a very healthy, lifelong activity that is particularly special because its very nature encourages self-expression and creativity. I could go on and on, which wouldn’t be appropriate for this venue, but just think about this skateboard if you see a group of skaters and find yourself jumping to conclusions (as I used to do).

Anyway, on to the piece. It was created using Montana spraypraint and layers of stencils. It’s very impressive how much shading was achieving using this technique. STENZSKULLS created this awesome board for a contest sponsored by Coalition Skate Shop in San Luis Obispo, California.

STENZSKULLS will also be showing the above piece–created with multi-layer stencil work, wood staining, adhesived on stencil on paper then distressed and wood carving–at the Manifest Hope show in D.C., opening this weekend. I love this one because it really shows a moment of quiet introspection, completely different from the design on the skateboard.

Can you believe that inauguration is only a few days away? Wow!

Flickr user J_Martini found this painted on a construction walk-through in Chicago.

Yes We Can!

This amazing yard mural also appeared on the Obama HQ blog. Wowee! Thanks to a35mmlife for this pic.

Yes We Can!

This unique portrait was created by flickr user Timon.

Yes We Can!