Stencil Graffiti Assignment

I chose to make a stencil of a whale that says "Save the Whales." I chose this because when I was in grade school I made a song during the summer about whales. I then made another one the next summer while I was on vacation, so all my family and friends know both songs. Most people that I know can sing the song, so my stencil would be used on t-shirts for my family and friends. The first line of the song goes "stop the waves but save the whales", which is why I chose to use those words in my stencil. I would also use the stencil on cards and stationary as a kind of calling card so that people can recognize that it is from me. I think that it is a very cool design and represents all the fun times that I have had in the water and during the summer. To me, the whale represents the summer and my trip to Connecticut, which was where the second whale song was created. My friends were there for the first time at the water park and we were in the wave pool when the song came to me, so it will also be important to them. The shirts that the stencil will go on will be used as gifts and some of them will have the song printed on the back. I would also like to use the shirts on a bar crawl because I think that they will be very unique and spark conversations. The songs are fairly short, but they are very funny and fun to sing so I think that my stencil will make my friends and family laugh. Making the stencil was tricky because it was hard to cut out the letters. I was not sure how I wanted the whale to look, if I wanted it to be a more serious whale or if I wanted it to be more of a cartoon. I went with the cartoon whale because it is more fun and goes better for my purpose, which was solely for entertainment. I thought about just doing an outline of the whale but I wanted to make sure that the whale was very recognizable and I did not think just having a thin outline of the whale would be as dramatic. I like that I was able to put the letters surrounding the whale because it looks like they are part of the tail and that they are spraying out of the whale's blow hole. If I was a better stenciller, I would have made the words more of a part of the whale, but I couldn't cut with that kind of precision. It was hard to get the paper to not rip even when I was cutting the letters, so it would have been much harder to keep it all connected. I really enjoyed making the stencil and I thought about putting the design outside to start a new thing, but I don't like the idea of making it a political statement. I love whales and do not support killing them or anything but I am not some whale activists, so I do not want the meaning to be transformed from the fun, light-hearted meaning that I intended it to be.