Posterchild is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of a

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

ist based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

who may be best known for his Mario Blocks project, the purpose of which is to install homemade

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

blocks in public spaces. After being featured on

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won ...

the project has expanded as others have made and hung their own blocks. Posterchild previously ran his own website, called Posterchilds Blade Diary. The term comes from the fact that graffiti stencils are cut using a blade. According to the artist, "I'm not writing this diary with a pen -- I'm using a blade to make my mark." While the website was active, it featured new artwork every weekday, typically a stencil. Usually there is a description of the inspiration for the piece written in the style of a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. The website also featured a large collection of photos of Posterchild's work, including

sticker art Sticker art (also known as sticker bombing, sticker slapping, slap tagging, and sticker tagging) is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment o ...

poster art A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text ...

, and various other creative forms of street art. There was also tutorials on how to create various types of street art. The website was last updated in July 2011. Much of the website is still accessible through

The Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. Previously, some of Posterchild's artwork—a series of stencils of a Betsy McCall paper doll and her dresses—was featured on the front page of the fashion section of The

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

; the artwork was unsigned, which is typical of street art. In response to the newspaper photo, Posterchild created a stencil of the featured model and placed it on top of the photographed wall in the same place where the model was standing in the photo. In September, 2007, Posterchild collaborated with fellow artist

Jason Eppink Jason Eppink (born 1983) is an American curator, designer, and prankster. His projects emphasize participation, mischief, surprise, wonder, generosity, transgression, free culture, and anti-consumerism, and they are staged in public spaces and onl ...

to create a series of "Magic Spigots", which were installed around

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

In 2009, Posterchild built and installed a series of Planter boxes designed to be installed in unused newspaper and flyer boxes.http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/02/guerilla-gardening-flowers-beautify-abandoned-flyer-box/
Archive

References

Footnotes

External links

Posterchilds Blade DiaryArchivesPosterchild Interview on torontoist.com

Posterchild on URLesque"Magic Spigots"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Posterchild Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Toronto Canadian graffiti artists Culture of Toronto Street artists