For most Artists, the pursuit of a creative life begins with a passion and a dream. In the early 1960's, a young woman channeled her need for self-expression into reviving the art of stenciling in the United States. Adele Bishop was a worldly young woman, a graduate of Juilliard, who dreamed of being an opera singer while living in Europe.  When a marriage and children brought her back to the States she settled into suburban life. But there was still that creative whisper saying "follow me." So she did. Adele discovered one of the oldest art forms in civilazations—stenciling. She read any books she could find on the subject and was soon making her own custom designs to use in her East Hampton Home. This passion flourished and Adele started a custom stenciling business that soon involved hiring a partner, Cile Lord.  The two wrote, The Art of Decorative Stenciling, and began producing mail order kits for Do It Yourselfers.

The Founders:

small group of stencil enthusiasts met in 1984 to form the Stencil Artists League, Inc (SALI) a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation to the art form of stenciling. (List of the founding members). And guess who was the first keynote speaker at the first SALI convention (when was this?) in Arlington, Virginia? Adele Bishop. In 1986, SALI became an official 501(c)(3) charitable educational organization.