We are back with a new interview for the Digging In Graffiti column. Today we bring you the queen of graffiti, one of the graffiti writers who made history in graffiti, Lady Pink!

It was an honor for us to be able to talk to her, she was super helpful in managing to spend time with us, we talked about the world of graffiti and art, but we leave you to read the interview…

Hi Lady Pink, nice to meet you and honored to have you in our Webpage.I am Zer for Palude Underground, thank you for this video chat, so let’s start right away with the first question: how did you evolve your style, how were you influenced by the writers and styles that were already there?For us, your generation is the one that pushed the most most in terms of style and trains in NYC.

That’s a good question!Going backwards, graffiti started appearing in 1968/69 and I came into the scene 10 years later, so I’m not part of the founders of the movement, but I found myself in a scene where some foundations had already been set .My generation is the one that came out of the underground to land in magazines, art galleries, etc…. The first generation came out by creating simple Tags and evolving them more and more, the second generation invented the styles we know today, from throw ups to wildstyles.

When I came into the scene in ‘79 already there were many situations around graffiti, there were already the crews,the kings of the movement and as always also the toys (laughs ed). So my generation already had a kind of example of how things had to be done, already there were rules and dynamics within the movement of graffiti.

When I started, like everyone else, I started as a toy.Back then you had to be lucky to find someone who could teach you how to refine both the painting itself and, for example, how to rack spraycans without getting caught, do a wildstyle in the dark while your legs are shaking and you can’t see anything,then you could see who stayed in the game and who didn’t. You couldn’t even carry the sketch while painting illegally because if you got caught and you had the sketch with you it was like a written confession of guilt.

It was all much more difficult and certainly there were a lot of risks.

What was it like being a girl in the midst of almost all boys?

I had to dress like a boy and do boy things because certainly my 16-year-old friends at the time wouldn’t always protect me, I had to prove that I had balls and show everybody that I could do my own thing without being a burden or slowing other people down. It was certainly a different era where a lot of crazy things happened, it was dangerous to be a kid in Queens,it was dangerous to paint illegally but the rush of adrenaline and the satisfaction of seeing your name out there is a feeling that only painters know. Exhibiting in a gallery or doing an exhibition causes definitely positive feelings, but they are two different worlds.

How has the attitude of graffiti(for example in NYC) changed over the years, in your experience?

My generation painted the subway a lot, but by 1999 it was already pretty much always clean except for a few European tourists who wanted to paint it as a kind of trophy or to pay homage to history, and for a few New Yorkers like my husband SMITH who continued to paint the subway throughout the 1990s By 2000 everything moved to the surface and we started painting more walls, and to do that you had to know someone in every neighborhood, to get the best spots.Each crew had their own wall and you had to go to them to paint in their neighborhood, it was a much more community thing. Nowadays, there is more street art than graffiti, less letters and more illustrations, and more legal walls where you can paint even during the day without needing permits

What do you think about the fact that many people paint more legally than illegally?

A lot of people to have a background as a writer nowadays, maybe they do 3/4 pieces illegally, post them 1000 times or even photoshop them, just so they can say to the eventual art gallery on duty, “there you see, I did the illegal part, now let me exhibit”.They say they painted years illegally but they only did it 5 minutes(laughs ed.). Those who have been painting illegally for years and continue to do so, do it for themselves and their passion, not to be sold as a brand in a gallery. You can only take someone seriously if they have a certain amount of work behind them, not 10 minutes of bombing. Even in my generation I remember there were similar fakes; people who wanted to exhibit in the galleries where we displayed our illegal work painted on the subway, without ever having painted a single subway in their careers! And they even succeeded and were even considered on par with those who had really banged on the subways, if not more highly rated, like for example the same Basquiat, who did virtually nothing illegal except for a few street tags, but exhibited in the same galleries where we exhibited. And not only him, many others who had never painted the subway,exhibited in the galleries next to us.

In fact the same thing happens now, there are more and more people selling more than the ones who are really worth it, and maybe they do discounted stuff and copied 1000 times…

That’s because unfortunately in the gallery world and the like, it’s not so much how you do things or what you do that matters, but who you know. That’s why it’s full of junk for sale in the art world, often it’s all about money. The art industry is always looking for the “new thing,” even when it often just sucks. Many contemporary artists don’t even know how to draw, but their works are sold for thousands dollars. I believe that a true artist makes his art not for others, to be looked at or to be sold, but simply because he has to. He has to do it for himself, then if it also sells, so much the better, but that should not be the primary aim.

What do you think about the fact that many companies, fashion brands and the like, are increasingly taking more and more from all that is hip hop culture, often even stealing its identity,and misrepresenting what is the original meaning of hip hop?

Like all cultures or subcultures in general, the movement is first generated spontaneously from below, and then when it reaches a certain popularity, it is taken to be sold by publicity companies,watered down and edulcorated to be something no longer only for a few people, but also for the public that does not understand anything about it.For example, putting rap, graffiti, breakdancing together in a whole series of advertisements or various commercials only serves to these companies to make money. Not all of us writers are HipHop Heads, not all of us listen to rap for example. When working with these companies allows you as an artist to keep your style and art intact,it can certainly be done, but it doesn’t always happen.

That was the last question, thank you for participating in this interview, with which we hope to get a piece of history read, especially to all those readers who may have been new to graffiti or to this culture more generally!

Thank you guys, peace!