Street Skulls

Stamping out a Mural

The exterior of Rollout's Paradise Garage was in rough shape. Snaking cracks and years of tagging had taken its toll, and so we asked our resident street artist, Geert Decock, to swing by and do something about it. We needed an intervention: from ragged and run-down to clever and cool.

Geert wanted to pay homage to Rollout's first-ever wallpaper design: a skull-studded damask named "Worth." As per usual, he brought along some playful experimentation, and envisioned a large-format stamping technique to create a reasonably hand-drawn facsimile of the original pattern. After some trial and error, Geert soon discovered the ideal application tool - a space-age material called "Yoga Mat."

Day one was about prepping and priming the cinderblock wall with a deep charcoal base coat, and plotting the grid. Day two was when the fun started: Geert used his home-made stamper to apply the underlying damask, with particular attention paid to all the beautiful imperfections in the process. For the pattern detailing and the ghostly skulls, he returned to his tried-and-true method - stencils and spray cans.

The result was a haunted wall of gothic beauty, with a gallery of spooky faces that gaze silently out into the world behind Rollout's office.