(Lady on the Leaf by Lady Pink, Acrylic on Canvas)
Click here to watch our video: Poetic Illustrations hits the road to meet Lady Pink!
Whether she’s tagging a wall in the city, or sitting in a cherry picker seven stories up, buckled into a harness, which she hates, Lady Pink and her crew have taken on jobs wall-size to several stories tall. They work under permits to create murals that transport minds into wonderlands of fantastic realms, far beyond the flat facade of a mundane brick sided building menacingly hanging over a parking lot. Her work leaves a space transformed. It transcends dimension, and transports the viewer elsewhere. Her work allows an audience to step into her world, a vivid place of color and wildly imaginative zone where a visual dance to silent music takes place. Formerly Ecuadorian, and now considered to be a member of the Human Race, Pink’s rebellious acts of self expression are part of a wide spread effort around the city of New York to empower women using graffiti and murals to make bold statements that women hold a presence in what was previously considered to be a “boys club”.
Meeting Pink was a calm experience that left us a bit lost for words for how to explain the time we spent with her. Did that just happen? Wait. Yes. Uh…..Yeah. I just met one of my heroes. I repeatedly thought. But she wouldn’t want to be called that. Because she’s just doing her thing. She wouldn’t want to be analyzed. She’s just doing her job. She see’s images, and she puts them onto spaces. For those of us who view her work, and stand back in awe of it, we find it to be the kind of impressive that we view from a distance and wonder how one accomplishes such beauty from a can that sprays with such a rapid pace that many often struggle to adequately manage to apply it, let alone use this material to create a piece of fine art. But Pink is a master of this craft. She wields these cans like Picasso would pick up a brush and place it to canvas. She puts her mask on, and climbs up ladders and just gets the job done.
Pink works hard. She’s not prideful. She’s not boastful. She works hard. She’s an animal lover. She’s an inspirational teacher. She’s bold. She’s outspoken. She’s feisty. But she’s calm and extremely compassionate regarding kids and education of youth. I admire her tenacity and gift for mentorship of youth. We were extremely happy with our decision to take our sons with us to meet her. It was an experience we know they will always reflect on, and she was highly responsive to having the boys there. She encouraged their participation and conversation over our meal, and was happy to know that we travel with our kids and teach them about the world, stating that it is important for kids to travel and learn. It was truly an honor to spend time getting to know her, and we look forward to seeing her continue to do just that - her thing!
One of the coolest parts about the experience of meeting Lady Pink was seeing how down to earth she and her family are. We enjoyed meeting and spending time with them and are so thankful for their encouragement of our book. We cannot wait to place a copy of it in their hands! We are honored to have Pink’s participation in our book. We are beyond ecstatic to display her work to introduce her to those who haven’t yet come to know who she is and what she has done. Working with Pink for the image in our book has opened a door to include works by artist Jenny Holzer and photographer Lisa Kahane, and as an artist and a student who studied these women, I’m beyond honored and can’t say with enough gratitude how thankful I am to include them in our work. Ladies, THANK YOU for what you contribute to our country and our world. Thank you for who you are, what you teach, how hard you work, and the messages you send. Thank you for your inspiration, and thank you for saying yes! We are filled with gratitude for your acceptance and look forward to sharing our book with you.
“I’m just doing my thing, you know. There are classes being taught on the theory behind why I do something, or why I make it a certain color. But I’m just doing what I want to do. I’m just doing my thing.”
- Lady Pink
For more information about Lady Pink and her artwork, please visit her website:
No comments:
Post a Comment