First Lady of Graffiti
She didn't let the boys club stop her.
Hi friends! Happy Wednesday and Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! Did you know NHHM starts in the middle of the month (September 15) because it’s the anniversary of independence for several Latin American countries? Love a good trivia fact. My trivia team can’t seem to break the top 10 at our weekly trivia spot. Alas, we just order the loaded tater tots to ease our sorrows. While our honoree this week is technically Latinx, we are celebrating her anyway because she’s dope AF. I’m so excited to introduce you to the badass graffiti artist Lady Pink.
Lady Pink
Although it would have been cool, Lady Pink was not born Lady Pink. She was born Sandra Fabara in Ecuador. Her family moved to Astoria in Queens when she was seven. Lady Pink went to the Manhattan High School of Art and Design as she hoped to be an architect like her father but she didn’t love all the math and rules of architecture. As someone who regularly sobbed over her math homework in high school, I get it. She got her start in graffiti as a way to cope with her sadness. When she was 16 her boyfriend moved back to Puerto Rico (ironically to avoid a graffiti charge) and she began to cope with their breakup by painting his name all over the city.* An indie screenwriter WISHES they made that up for a movie. Her coping mechanism became an art form for her and she began to hold exhibits of her work.
Graffiti was a major boys club (I’m starting to wonder what jobs and activities weren’t a boys club) but she didn’t let that stop her. Lady Pink paid her dues by painting subway cars, which earned her the respect of male graffiti artists who said she was one of the only women capable of competing with them. She also gained fame when she starred in “Wild Style”, an 80s hip hop fictional film about graffiti artists. Pretty cool they had actual graffiti artists star in the film. When she was 21 (yeah, you read that right, twenty freaking one), Lady Pink had her first solo show called “Femmes-Fatales.” In 1980, Lady Pink formed an all-female graffiti crew called Ladies of the Arts.
“When I first started, women were still trying to prove themselves, through the 70’s, that women could do everything guys could do… The more guys said “you can’t do that”, the more I had to prove them wrong. I had to hold it up for all my sisters who looked up to me to be brave and courageous and to prove I could do what guys could do.” -Lady Pink
You’re probably wondering where she got the name Lady Pink. She chose the name because she wanted it to be feminine and signify she was a woman (hence Pink) and she loved historical English romances and royalty (hence Lady). Who woulda thunk a badass graffiti artist would dig Jane Austen? Proof women are so much more complex than we’ve been made out to be by white male authors and screenwriters.
It’s no surprise her work is highly sought after for people’s private collections. I read her current pieces don’t sell for less than $8K a pop. YGG. Lady Pink’s collections have been shown in the Whitney Museum, the Met, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Groningen Museum in Holland. Today, she is still painting but she’s also educating! Lady Pink works with an art school in New York and helps the students paint murals in the city. She also runs a mural company with her hubs who is also a graffiti artist. You can watch some of the below clips for an interview with Lady Pink and watch her painting.
Self-Promotion Corner
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That’s all for this week, catch ya on the flip side!
YouTube Clips About Lady Pink
Meet Lady Pink: “The first lady of graffiti” by AFP News Agency
*Some sources say her boyfriend died but I think the boyfriend moved away story is more plausible.
Citations
“Nine Latinas You May Not Know” Smithsonian
“Top Female Street Artists That You Should Know” Journey For Ever