Urban Art means "unsanctioned art", as opposed to officially sanctioned art. Also called 'street art', it does not mean that one is of higher quality, or even necessitate a different style. Urban art is often created under duress which sanctioned/approved art is not, and this constrains it. It is guerrilla art. Urban art is, however, free of any censorship, commercialism, and community mores which establishment art must hew to. This liberates it and makes it uncompromised; it is "pure art".
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Also see Town Art, Stevenson Bridge, and Conversations on Bathroom Walls.
Art
Stencils
Stencil Series
There seems to be a series of stencils in Davis produced by the same group or at least in a very similar style. They have been found all around town, including on Campus and the part of Downtown closest to Campus.
California Aggie columnist Ian Watson ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
ranted about these stencils, especially because one appeared on the Death Star. It is rumored that many of these stencils are painted by the International Socialist Organization. The others in the series are:
Misc. Stencils
2004
Is this associated with the design department? These were all over campus at some point.
Found nearby Cafe Roma in early Fall 2004. 
Found nearby Cafe Roma in early Fall 2004.
Found on the overpass by In-N-Out on 09-20-2004. 
Found near "Life is War," same time. Also found near Aggie Village (6/21/05)
This stencil was found on the side of the Death Star on 11-15-2004. It is in the same style as the other political stencils from the summer of 2004. There were 2 other new stencils (no pictures of those yet), also obviously by the same group/individual
2005
On one of the pillars on the Art Building 2005-03-17
Found outside Ciocolat 2005-02-05. References the Primate Center.
Central Park 2005-11-06
Found by the Alpha Chi Omega house on Second Street
John and Bob are found in the Senda Nueva Greenbelt where Antelope Ave cuts in (3/13/05). John and Bob can also be found twice on the DHS campus, although one stencil has been shoddily painted over.
Appeared sometime in 2005 on the lower left hand corner of the north entrance to Lower Freeborn
Orchard Park pedestrian overpass
Found on the Orchard Park pedestrian overpass 2005-02-09
Found on the Orchard Park pedestrian overpass 2005-02-09
Found on the Orchard Park pedestrian overpass 2005-02-09
April
Found slapped on the side of the Death Star on 2005-04-25
Found on Campus Cafe Roma's window 2005-04-25
June
Found at the top of the exterior stairway on the Death Star
Found at the bottom and third level of the exterior stairway on the Death Star
Found under the bridge at California Avenue
September
Found on WC door in the Arboretum's Wyatt Deck.
Found on 3rd Street across from Raja's
Found on a trashcan in the Big Kid's Park
2006
January
Inside the Memorial Union bus terminal.
At the fifth and sixth floors of the northeast tower of the Death Star. Interesting that these are among the highest-elevated, least-trafficked open ledges in Davis...
February
on the underside of the old A Street bridge March
At the corner of Third & University. April
Just outside the main entrance to the UCD Art Building
On the side of the Theatre and Dance building 
A hilarious stencil of Mr. Spock on a pillar outside of the Student Housing building 
Another view of Mr. Spock
Clouds drawn on the west doors of the Art Building
Outside of the L&S Dean's office in the Death Star May
Stepping stone at the south-west facet of Delta of Venus
between Olson and Shields June
Found next to Ali Baba.
Also found next to Ali Baba; the barcodes were stamped in 2004 according to the archive above, but the Critical Mass stamps are from '06. 
Located across from Sam's Mediterranean. August/Sept
Across from Chem 194 and Everson Hall on the Spanish tile-roofed building's wall.
In front of Mansion Square, this stencil is identical to one near Sam's Mediterranean. 
The back of one of the design bungalos next to Walker Hall. October
Identical to the bird near Chem 194; this one's near the Art Building.
I'm a ninja, not a terrorist painted under Mrak Hall bridge. 
Same bird stencil as above, this series is between Voorhies and South Hall. November
On concrete of basketball court at Willowcreek Park
Lowest level of the Social Sciences and Humanities Building
2007
February
This stencil is located on the sidewalk between the now-defunct Tower Records and the prosperous downtown Starbucks. March
On a planter at the north end of the Wellman Hall front porch.
On a pillar in the pit of Wellman Hall.
May
In Central Park near the play area
There were some nearby spray painted words, but I'm not sure if they go with the Ark, at the far eastern end of the arboretum 
Modified heavy tanks stencil to advertise UCD May 1, 2007: Day of Action June
The heroic Chuck Norris, behind Young Hall 
Banana peel in front of The Avid Reader; identical stencil in front of the now-defunct Aggie Fan Club store. July
under a bridge in the arboretum
On the sidewalk north of the arboretum and south of Unitrans
November
on the steps of Chem 194 2008
June
Corner of Peter J. Shields Avenue and California Avenue July
Several on Campus near the MU Stencil Status
A lot of the original stencils are now painted over. The city seems to be using bright silver paint to cover some of them, which makes for some really ugly sidewalk. So what you do is stencil many of them in a pattern so that when they silver paint over them it makes a large face or such.
Graffiti
Also see Desk Graffiti.
This is painted on the remains of a building foundation in the UC Davis Arboretum.
Under the bike bridge at the worst intersection
Peace sign on F Street.
This meanie face is in the Arboretum.
On Colgate Dr. between L and M streets.
The bridge under the I-80/Highway 113 interchange over Putah Creek used to be a very famous graffiti spot until about 4 years ago. You can access it by heading out towards the Hydraulics Lab south of the Vet hospital and Unitrans depot. It is also south of the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture (CABA). Local writers DEOne, SteveOne, Dawns, Erekt, Phlower, Bfore, and even such SF artists as Giant, Bukue, SetOne, and Leks and others used to kill the walls out there every weekend, drink beer, build skate ramps, blast metal, and generally have a good time. You can see most of this work documented on Susan Farell's site graffiti.org. This was all fun and games until an alert CHP officer saw me painting in the middle of the day and pulled his gun on me. Graffiti spot no longer. All the walls have been sandblasted.... :( —(Mr. JeffSpeckles aka SteveOne SBS HNR, freight train killer 1996-2005 and beyond)
Also see The Foundation and Stevenson Bridge.
Photo Request: There is some nice graffiti on an old trailer next to the Davis Park and Ride parking lot behind Ikedas. I saw it one day when I didn't have my camera and I haven't had a chance to make it back. Anyone?
This is the Southwest side of that trailer, I didn't get a look at the other side.
On the sidewalk east of Natsoulas Gallery April 2007
For an ever changing display of graffiti, head over to the train tracks along 2nd Street near the Police Station. The freight trains there park for a while, displaying many vast murals of well executed graffiti art. Of course, where there is good work, there is also bad, but typically one can spot many multicolored banners mixed in with the typical tags.
Posters and Fliers
Not all posters and Fliers are unsanctioned, but these are noncommercial, uncensored and artful.
Critical Mass Poster 
DPFS flier 
State of the Homeland, posted in Delta bathroom 
Driving is Bad for your Ass, posted @ Delta 
I'm so glad we fucking evolved, posted @ focus your art 
Do you suffer from Affluenza? 
The Immaculate Invasion of Iraq, posted outside delta 
Protest poster for the war in Lebanon and music show. Read the small print 
Keep pretending no one frets about genocide or al-Fallujah and Hadithah 
The empire is in love with you, posted at Focus your Art 
Poster for Utah Phillips at the Varsity 
Mad Cow Stringband @ the Palms
Comments:
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I hate to be a stickler but the one on the pillar of the art building is actually a silkscreen. You can make the argument that a silkscreen is a stencil but it is not a stencil in the same form as all the other ones on this page. Also, I'm sure there is other Urban Art in this town besides stencils. Maybe someone can contribute some of these other mediums? —GracielaGuardado
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True, there's a ton of interesting spray paint graffiti. Esp. on the trains, Mystery Picture/History has one from The Foundation
2005-07-17 16:58:43 Does anybody have any pictures of the Evangelions that used to be on the Orchard Park Overpass? —NickSchmalenberger
2005-09-12 13:32:00 on the Death Star there's another stencil, a woman's face in a box that looks like it's suppose to house a light to light the floor, i would have taken a picture but we couldn't really stop —MichelleAccurso
2005-10-29 13:01:34 Another neat stencil art image was the Samus stencil. Any pictures? It's painted over now, unfourtunately. —MatthewTom
2005-11-06 22:54:36 I thought it was an Evangelion, but maybe it is Samus. From Metroid right? I have pictures. I'll post them when I get the film scanned. —NickSchmalenberger
2006-01-06 23:18:26 is it so wrong that i wish there was more graffiti around to photograph? i adore urban art —MichelleAccurso
2006-01-12 11:44:34 Take the train down to Berkeley and look on the east (and west too) side of the tracks. Between Richmond and Emeryville you will see tons of nice stuff. Graffiti tends to be concentrated around train yards and tracks, construction sites, and freeways in urban areas. —JeffSpeckles
2006-02-04 06:04:07 I <3 —MarieHuynh
2006-03-04 00:35:27 A neat book to check out is "Graffiti world" by Nicholas Ganz. I like a lot of the character artists in there. I particularly like Kid Acne and Cha. The reason why you see a lot of writing on the trainyards is because trains travel a lot, and therefore provide a wider audience for the writer. —MatthewTom
2006-03-04 00:39:58 BTW, does anyone know what "Achilles Snap" means? It's not art, but I see that message every morning... —MatthewTom
2007-03-28 07:40:32 "The back of one of the design bungalos next to Walker Hall" was there before August/Sept. but I don't remember how long before. —MarieHuynh
2007-05-02 16:47:28 I periodically see tags from fairly notable tagging crews on trains in Davis and Woodland. It always impresses me. —BrianTrott
2007-05-24 21:34:04 There is a cool stencil of a Garden gnome throwing a molotov cocktail on a dumpster at the corner of 8th and h. I don't have a digital camera or I would post it. It reminds me of the work of Banksy every time I see it. —Dimitri
2007-06-15 01:36:37 Dunno if it's still there but I loved the stencil of a pair of scissors "cutting" part of freeborn hall off - it was artfully placed. —AynReyes
2007-07-10 08:21:00 I don't mean to be too negative or anything, but whoever made the Chuck Norris, Andre the Giant, John Lennon and Bob Marley stencils, needs to get some new material. That shit's majorly cliche. Oh, and we need to put more freehand tagging in this section. Last thing, quit talking about Banksy. That guys like a monolith of talent that overshadows a lot of other great artists. Plus, he's like the Tony Hawk of graffiti. Okay I'm done. —BrianTrott
2008-03-24 01:10:17 I really appreciated the freehand monster that appeared on the south side of Big 5 in the marketplace. It was covered up recently, but it had a good run. —AynReyes
