Seen our latest how-to? Think 'big' before trying your next stencil project

Hello! You're reading the CBC Arts newsletter, and if you like what you see, stick around! Sign up here, and every Sunday we'll send you a fresh email packed with art, culture and a metric truckload of eye candy, hand-picked by our small and mighty team. Here's what we've been talking about this week.

Hi, art lovers!

There's a new how-to video for you this week, and it's a lesson in stencil-making from Roadsworth, a guy who's been putting the "street" in street art since the early 2000s. The Montrealer's especially well-known for work like this — enormous, ground-level sight gags that often have a political twist. In the beginning, his signature was tweaking crosswalks and other traffic markings. And they get even more impressive when you see them from above.

So we're clear: if you get caught stencilling your neighbour's driveway, that's on you.

(Paint with permission, kids. Always paint with permission.)

But once you're done scrolling through Roadsworth's portfolio of greatest hits, here are a few more artists who turn streets — and sidewalks and rooftops and even mountain slopes — into their supersized hidden canvases.

How do you stencil the street without paint? Or anything, really, that'll get your hands messy — and your a** arrested? Indian street artist DAKU debuted this shadow art installation in Goa earlier this month. The text is all about the passage of time, something anyone walking through the work will be reminded of immediately. During the day, the shadows transform and eventually disappear (because science). Here's a timelapse video that lets you watch it in action.

More than just a beautiful sidewalk doily, this is street art even your Nana could get behind. Polish artist NeSpoon paints lace because it symbolizes something everybody can relate to: the universal desire for order and harmony.

Little known fact about Sudbury, Ont.: there's a toe-sucking giant hiding on the roof of their science centre, and it's been chilling there since 2016. That's the year the city's Up Here festival brought Ella and Pitr to town, a French duo known for their "Sleeping Giant" series — cartoon titans that are probably best viewed from an airplane window.

Because the streets are probably covered with snow and/or slush wherever you're reading this, check out the work of Simon Beck, an artist who carves geometric designs into sprawling fields of untouched snow. In 2015, he left his mark around the Banff National Park area, including one piece of a howling wolf at Lake Louise Ski Resort. (Watch CBC's coverage of his trip.)

Or you could spend the afternoon flipping through Sonja Hinrichsen's online portfolio, another artist whose No. 1 tool is a pair of snowshoes. For her "Snow Drawings" series, she usually recruits groups of locals, and together they create hypnotic designs like these.

You've got to see this

Here's a feel-good story to start your day - Quebec artist Danaé Brissonnet leads mural projects all over the world — Costa Rica, Nicaragua, France and here in Canada, too. But what makes her work special is that she collaborates with locals, kids especially. We caught up with her in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the Santurce Es Ley art festival. Stick around for the awesome aerial shot at the end of the story.

Brace yourselves for the messiest Oscar night since 1989 - The Academy Award nominations were announced this past week. Roma and The Favourite lead the pack with 10 nods each. As for the snubs, surprises and outright ugly stuff, you'll find plenty of that here. Our team's Peter Knegt and Amanda Parris spent Tuesday morning breaking down the Oscar race, and this is a transcript of their conversation. (Desks may or may not have been flipped.)

Like Star Wars, but with dinks - "Docking," the new short film from Edmonton's Trevor Anderson, is one of the few Canadian projects headed to the Sundance Film Festival this week. It's a deeply personal story about love and dating...as told by flying space penises. Flying space penises designed by The Last Jedi's art director, no less. (One more Canadian film at Sundance: "Fast Horse," from CBC Short Docs. You can watch it right now.)

Follow this artist

Ola Volo (@olavolo) - Ola's worked with everyone from Louis Vuitton to the Vancouver Opera, and her Instagram doesn't just deliver fantastical illustrations like this one — it's also your ticket to world travel. Ola paints murals all over the place. (Last stop? Los Angeles.) We caught up with her in this week's Art Minute.

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Until next time!

XOXO, CBC Arts