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Modern Femininity Research

Modern Femininity research:

https://www.matchesfashion.com/womens/the-style-report/2018/03/the-new-accessories-issue/talking-point-what-is-modern-femininity-ss18

The moments in our lives that have rendered us most vulnerable have the ability to transform us the most. As our wardrobe often mirrors our internal mood, it has been interesting to note how the very essence of vulnerability has been echoed culturally through fashion, art, politics and social change over the last 18 months. As women are empowered, so, too, is a word that has traditionally signified a deficiency of authority.

In mid-2017 my own vulnerability was laid bare as I healed from a bad accident in which my right leg was broken in three places and a metal rod inserted. I slowed down, meditated more, took time to reflect. The quiet space allowed me to embrace my softness, expressing my innermost dreams, desires and hurts both personally and professionally. I wore lingerie as daywear, partial to the caress of silks against my body. I spent months barefoot, unable to squeeze my swollen ankle into any sort of closed shoe. Even imagining wearing a high heel made me shudder.

I envisioned Frida Kahlo in her hospital bed, recovering from spinal fusion surgery, wearing a hand-painted, corset-like cast around her torso, turning her suffering into a work of art – pain and anguish rendered in beautiful colours. Her handicap had become her armour. I had to make do with a thigh-high compression sock and eventually, red patent-leather Birkenstocks, which turned out to strike something of a fetishistic chord with others.

October and November 2017 brought new emphasis to defenceless women in the clutches of influential men, as Hollywood (my own community) started to topple in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations. What had been whispered about among women for decades came to light. The dominoes continued to fall across industries and across countries, as droves of people voiced their own experiences in media, politics, the art world, food and fashion.

Desirability, for film actresses, traditionally meant second-skin gowns, ample cleavage and borrowed jewels. Now red-carpet attire has become a political declaration – whether a sea of black dresses or white roses as accessories – by the #TimesUp and #MeToo movement.

The rise of the divine feminine is upon us. Centuries of women violated in their powerlessness are erupting as Mother Earth does. Slowly, the fear of losing our jobs, friends or reputation doesn’t hold us back from speaking our truths. Nor does it preclude us from using our wardrobe to express the multitude of complicated emotions residing within. In 2018 and beyond, I embrace vulnerability as my most valued accessory. And a pair of flats – however impractical – should the need to flee suddenly arise.

https://prezi.com/ljsrymsntlag/the-representation-of-women-in-contemporary-and-modern-art/ Women have been idealized in every form of art, some of the most obvious examples would be that of classical Grecian style sculpture. Although the change from idealizing women to representing them in a more natural way started back with realism and naturalism, modern and contemporary art continued with this trend in their own way. When the modern and contemporary styles began, women became more confident in themselves and in their art work. Women were interested in expressing themselves and showing their femininity, or their masculinity, if that suited them. The feminist movement became a catalyst for this change in artwork. There were male artists that also took a stand and broke free of the typical idealized female nude. This time period became a very big turning point for women, as artists and as subjects.

The works included here are all pieces that represent women. There are male and female artists included. Their work shows the shift from idealizing women and representing them in sexist or misogynistic ways, to opening up people’s eyes to the idea that women are more than house wives, they are more than sexual beings strictly for pleasure, and they are creative and talented artists that deserve recognition for their skills.

Cindy Sherman is included in this not only because she addressed the roles of, and injustices against, women, but also because she is a successful and ambitious artist that broke rules and boundaries. For one exhibition she created very large images, taking up large portions of the wall, simply because pretentious male artists did it and she hadn’t seen any female artists do it. She is a risk taker and a talented artist. Not only did Cindy Sherman address some very interesting and thought-provoking ideas, but she also shows us what a devoted and creative female artist can do. Her ambition and talent got her to a place where she is respected among a male dominated world. If more female artists were risk takers as Sherman is, women’s work would occupy larger spaces in museums and would have a bigger impact in the art world.

https://www.thesublimewoman.com/recalling-femininity-means-modern-woman/ Femininity is our true nature. It is something we are born with. This is why femininity cannot be bought or sold, as it is not a product. It can only be recalled: developed, sensed, rediscovered. This is a gift we have from Nature given to us as way to create on this planet. This is something we can genuinely and generously offer, if only we know and remember how.

What exactly is the difference between boys and girls and their way of learning? To put it simply, boys represent Yang energy – energy of masculine, active, bright, strong. They represent persistence and competition. For this reason to be able to learn better, they need to compete all the time. This is when they can really learn something and grow. While girls’ way of learning is completely differently, with their Yan energy, feminine, passive, dark and soft – they simply look and copy.

However, feminine way is a mystery for modern women. No one taught them that, not parents nor teachers. So they forgot. This is when our instinctual memory comes in handy. If we look at our two main objects that hang out around the Earth, Moon and Sun, we can understand better how to be. Sun is a big bright Yang star that constantly shares light and warmth, and works outside of itself. Moon, being a very Yin planet, constantly takes it on itself from the outside to the inside, and thus, creates a reflection of the light.

As a result, we now know that Sun is a masculine Yang principle that directs to the outside, and Moon is a feminine Yin principle that directs to the inside. Since femininity cannot be taught, but can only be remembered, there are several ways every woman can do daily to bring back their genuine, simple and magical nature of femininity, Moon nature, nature of deep and ancient essence.

Sexuality is essentially a way of expressing our energy through this gender, since this is what we all do every moment of our life. It is how we manifest ourselves by being whether a man or woman. So basically, sexuality is our life. since sexuality is a way of one or another gender to express oneself. This is exactly how we can use our sexuality to remember our feminine nature. We need to recall who we really are – women. Once we start doing it, we start to understand how to live and self-express in our own unique feminine Yin way, our own gender way.

Our body is a miraculous tool that remembers everything and stores every memory in tissues that we did not express outside. Every emotion, every stress, every fear. Great way to attain bodily connection again is to closely listen what does your body want and how. Every time you perform something using your body, pay close attention to what it does and how it wants to do it – let it do it.

The ability to create anything, literally anything, is one of the ultimate feminine qualities. Female principle of living is living creatively. This is not necessarily about creating a piece of art. It can be in absolutely about everything in every moment – from making tea or dinner, to brushing your hair and taking shower, making your bed, walking, working or taking care of someone.

However, it is not true because we are all very different and every single one of us have our way of expressing our femininity or sexuality or value. True sexuality or femininity is something that is expressed uniquely and genuinely by you and from you, not something that was copied from the magazine or a movie.

Let us remember that femininity is not only about heels and lipsticks, as important as they are. It is also about the ability to feel, to sense, to intuit, to act from our deep feminine self, the ability to live consciously and do everything consciously. From eating to sleeping to breathing. That is what the forgotten femininity is. Every single thing that women do now can be done in a feminine way. We simply need to recall it.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/cindy-sherman/ Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and filmmaker whose self-portraits offer critiques of gender and identity. What made Sherman famous is the use of her own body in roles or personas in her work, with her seminal series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980) being particularly important.

Sherman examines and distorts femininity as a social construct.“I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite,” she reflected. “It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It's more challenging to look at the other side.” she has continued to explore women as subject matter, often donning elaborate disguises in large-scale color photographs, throughout her career. While her practice has grouped her with the Pictures Generation, along with artists such as Sherrie Levine and Robert Longo, her distinctive blend of performance and photography stands alone.

https://publicdelivery.org/cindy-sherman-untitled-film-stills/ Untitled Film Stills Untitled Film Stills is a series comprising of 69 black and white photographs by Cindy Sherman, which she created between 1977 and 1980. The series’ images are sketchily developed and a moderate 8.5 x 11 inches in size, with no explicit citations or titles.

Her poses in different stereotypical female roles were influenced by the 1950s and 1960s Hollywood B Movies, Film noir, and European art-house films. Untitled Film Stills depicts clichés or feminine types such as the office girl, girl on the run, bombshell, housewife, and many others that are deeply emended in the cultural imagination.

The stills show that you could be everyone while still being utterly no one. The implicit message of the portraits in the series is that representations of femininity are precisely that, little more than mere images. Femininity only needs a little maquillage, a perfect pout, and the right dress, as numerous drag queens have shown in years down the line. Quoting the famous words of feminist Simone de Beauvoir1, which states, One is not born a woman but becomes one.

Through the Untitled Film Stills, Sherman shows us precisely what – the different women a woman can become. The images in the series do not only represent the traditionally prescribed boundaries of feminine character, but they also portray images of possibility. After all, the artist herself becomes, though transiently, all these women.

The artist emphasized the role-play characteristic of both identity and femininity. And it is no incident that women often denote the process of getting ready as “putting on their face.” For many decades, lipstick and mascara have been women’s war paint. Putting on makeup is not meant just to define a woman but rather, to determine what kind of a woman she really is. Is she a glittery lip gloss type of girl, or a lipstick kind of girl? Is she the type of woman who wears too much makeup, or the type that favors a bare or natural face? Therefore, it is a misnomer to say that a woman wears makeup to look beautiful; instead, women wear makeup to tell the world who they are.

“I suppose unconsciously, or semiconsciously at bet, I was wrestling with some sort of turmoil of my own about understanding women. The characters weren’t dummies; they weren’t just airhead actresses. They were women struggling with something, but I didn’t know what. The clothes make them seem a certain way, but then, you look at their expression, however slight it may be, and wonder if maybe ‘they’ are not what the clothes are communicating. I wasn’t working with a raised ‘awareness’, but I definitely felt that the characters are questioning something – perhaps being forced into a certain role. At the same time, those roles are in film: the women aren’t being lifelike; they are acting. There are so many levels of artifice. I like that whole jumble of ambiguity.”

https://www.fridakahlo.org/ Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, pain and passion, and bold, vibrant colors. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form.

Life experience is a common theme in Kahlo's approximately 200 paintings, sketches and drawings. Her physical and emotional pain are depicted starkly on canvases, as is her turbulent relationship with her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera, who she married twice. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits.

My painting carries with it the message of pain." - Frida Kahlo

https://www.heatherjames.com/art-detail/38838-frida-kahlo-plaster-corset/ It was Frida’s father, Guillermo who gave her his box of paints and brushes as she was recovering from the bus accident that had shattered her spine. The devastation she suffered is shown in excruciating detail in her 1944 painting, The Broken Column. Yet the first canvas she painted upon was the most convenient one — the plaster cast bodice encasing her body. As she related, she had dreamed of becoming a doctor, yet “to combat the boredom and pain (and) without giving it any particular thought, I started painting.” Later, her mother asked a carpenter to fashion an easel “if that’s what you can call the special apparatus which could be fixed to my bed because the plaster cast didn’t allow me to sit up.” (Andrea Kettenmann, Frida Kahol: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion, Taschen, 1999, pg. 18)

On this particular corset, Kahlo painted a blood-red Hammer and Sickle, the symbolic configuration representing proletarian solidarity — a union between the peasantry and working-class expressing her lifelong political sympathies and below, a developing fetus entering perhaps its third trimester, a reminder of the still deeper insult of the accident, the one that added a layer of suffering and regret to Frida’s personal tragedy — her inability to bear children. Frida’s corsets hardened around her resolve as much as her body, but they also speak of her almost unbearable longing. They are ruminations on the power of creativity to heal as well as demonstrations of Frida Kahlo’s unbounded capacity for confronting the very bodily enclosures that imprisoned her, transforming them, taking them over as much as she could, and turning them into something beautiful and expressive.

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo

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martelledesignresearch · 3 years ago

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Books i found in the AUT library that have caught my interest;

Women in graphic design by gerda Breuer

Illustration by alan male

Sketching and drawing by kojiro Kumagai

Visualising ideas from scribbles to storyboards by Gregor Krisztian and Nesrin Schlempp-Ulker

Women in graphic design by gerda Breuer notes 12/08/22

“Design has offered women a decent means of support since the nineteenth century, and it continues to do so today. In the USA, tens of thousands of women find employment at every level of the field, from stay at home pieceworker to production artist to independent entrepreneur to creative director.” - ellen lupton page 66

“Magazine Publishing is another field where women have found opportunities to thrive. Whiles names such as Grace Mirabella (Mirabella), Tina Brown (Vanity Fair, The daily New Yorker, and The Daily Beast) and Anna Wintour (Vogue) have figured high on the mastheads of great magazines, women’s roles as art directors and designers have been less prominent.” - page 75

“NEVER DO ANYTHING JUST FOR MONEY!” - An interview with Irma Boom - page 226

Irma Boom is one of the most important contemporary book designers and probably the best known female designer in Europe. Her books reflect on the medium ‘book’, they are artistic objects and part of many museum collections. She has worked for the museum Fur Gestaltung Zurich, Vitra and the Dutch Steenkolen Handels-Vereeniging, for which she created a book with 2136 pages. She lives and works in Amsterdam. - Page 226

Q&A’s I relate to

Is graphic design still a boy’s club?Is it still harder for women to become successful?

Well, I don't think it is any different than in other fields, but it is indeed remarkable: at schools you see many women, but less in professional life.

Did you choose jobs because they would bring you attention?

I collaborate a lot with artists, which is an interesting challenge. I do books I am interested in, and if there is a possibility To collaborate, That's the key to success.

Why are you so attracted to books?

A book tells stories. They’re culture! A book spreads information. Even now, when we are connected to the whole world via the internet, a book can still do its work.

Is there a difference between working with women or with men? Areyou treated differently because you are a female?

I have no experience of being a man, but I work a lot in male environments and I love men, I must say. But in the art world, lots of women are active: curator, directors in the museums and galleries. When I work with women. The social aspect is also an important aspect. I love working with strong women.

“I AM AN INDIVIDUAL, NOT A MODEL” - An interview with Paula Scher

SInce the 1970’s Paula Scher has been one of the most popular Graphic Designers in the USA. she has Designed hundreds of record covers and posters and is known for her conventional and colourful designs, which initiated the discussion on

‘A new historicism’ in graphic design. Paula Scher was the first female partner at Pentagram and always insisted on being valued for good work, not for being a woman, which she emphasised especially in the letter ‘the boat’. - page 232

Have the men changed?

They work better with women than they used to. They are less condescending and accept that women make terrific designers.

Do you see any structures in the behaviour of women graphic designers?

Large design firms often have large corporations as clients. The larger firms make more money. Men gravitate towards them because often they are the ‘breadwinners’ in their family relationships and want to earn more money. I found that both men and women designers can be equally disgusted with corporate work. The women I know in highly paid positions, or working with high paying clients, are the breadwinners of their families.

I chose to read through this book because I personally am a believer in women's rights and the culture of women, especially in the creative industry. This is someone that I am passionate about and am interested in. Since I am studying communication design, this book reveals and discusses women in the industry of graphic design and I think this is worth reading as a young female who is interested and is striving to be a part of the graphic design industry.

After having read through this book, I have discovered some important well known female graphic designers such as Irma boom and Paula Scher. Both of these female designers have creative talents along with strong personalities and ideas. What i have learnt from both the designer icons is that it doesn’t matter what your sex is but unique ideas can equally come from anybody, but as a woman in the male dominated industry, we must work harder and push even further for our work to be heard and seen. It isn't about being better than men but to have the equal opportunities and credit as everybody else in the competitive field. As A young Junior designer. I do take inspiration and motivation from these artists, because if I want my work to be seen, I must take the advice to be strong in my ideas and have a firm mindset in order to achieve my goals and also what I want to create and share to the world.

Illustration By Alan Male Notes- 12/08/22

Introduction Notes; Illustration is about communicating a specific contextualised message to an audience. It is rooted in an objective need, which has been generated by either the illustrator or a commercial based client to fulfil a particular task. It is the measure and variety of these different tasks that makes the discipline of illustration such an influential visual language.

Most people have been influenced by children’s books. These have been described as ‘holding the key to worlds locked inside the imagination, as well as depicting worlds that exist but cannot be seen.’ Children’s picture books, whether fiction or nonfiction, feed us attitudes and information and help to develop our visual senses and intellect. One’s imagination is free to create images and conjure up atmospheres. - page 9

The Illustrator Notes; They need to have knowledge of, be authoritative about and have empathy for a great many topics and subjects, particularly those they may be required to engage with as part of the brief. They also need to be mindful of current affairs and opinion and be contemporary with society at Large and trends in visual language and media. Illustrators need to have knowledge, understanding and insight regarding the context within which they are working and the subject matter they are engaged with. - page 11

The application of creative processing by being inventive, imaginative and original is intrinsic and inherent to the individual. It is something that cannot be given, but can be brought out, controlled and directed. How much control and direction is down to the circumstance and situation of the illustrator at any given time. - page 30

Research and Illustration;

Much illustration, as we know, is dependent on reference, even images of fantastical and highly imaginative, nature are underpinned or influenced by something that is real. - Page 36

Externalisation of ideas and freedom of expression;

The drawings produced should not be inhibited by vagaries of technical accuracy or realism. The idea or concept is paramount. Methods adopted ought to allow for complete creative and imaginative freedom, and the concept of ‘doodling’ is to be encouraged. - page 56

Inspiration can occur anywhere and in the unlikeliest places, so carrying a sketchbook at all times is wise.

Ambient, decorative, metaphorical, and fantastical images can be innovated and conceived at this stage by using whatever visual means appropriate colour, texture or line. - page 57

Aesthetic and non aesthetic;

Cultural history and association has a considerable influence on the fluctuating facade of contemporary illustration.This cultural association has facilitated a defined push for some illustration styles to be intrinsically linked with subjects, themes and contexts that are influenced by market culture, most notably the music industry, advertising, and fashion.

Uran culture like punk, new wave, and psychedelic before that, has now given rise to a trend in illustration that is symbolic of music, fashion and graffiti associated with this genre. Like many so called ‘subcultures’

The fashion industry continues to provide opportunities the fashions of the day, most notably from the early twentieth century to the 1950s, was dominated by illustration.

Today, contemporary illustrators engage with either conceptual or literal ideas and will draw from a considerable range of influence, dependent on the garments in question. And their intended customers. - page 100

Other examples suggest the inclusion of hand lettering intrinsic in the image as a whole, or the representation of specific physical distortions related to the human figure, most notably used in satire. It can be certain that the visual imagery that is illustration is deeply embedded within culture and will continue to represent and communicate either trends in society or be a trend unto itself. - page 102

Chocolate Box;

The term chocolate box is usually associated with imagery that many, particularly some visual arts practitioners, would be contemptuous of. It could be said that it is devoid of ‘intelligent’ aesthetics, superficial, and safe’ regarding content, particularly as it mainly depicts subject matter that is unchallenging and ‘pure’ it contextually provides messages that are ‘sickly sweet’ and overly sentimental, especially with advertising.

Visually, much of what could be considered as ‘chocolate box’ is a combination of either pictorial or composite hyperreality with impressionable or sentimentalised nature.

More ‘adult’ in nagture and popularly described as ‘cheesecake’ occasionally risque, the subject matter can be derived from the worl of glamour, used to promote or sell a myriad of products, oten totally unconnected with the theme and frequently containing elements of humour mixed with sexual connotation. Not to be confused with pornography of any form, this is subject matter relies in imagery that is overtly ‘chocolate box’: scantily attractive young women, proactively posed and engaging in some action or commentarythat provoke amusement and/or titalltion

Generally the ‘chocolate box’ domain of illustration does provide much food for the thought and debate regarding levels of aestheticism and individual professional ambition within illustration practice. - page 105

Shock;

Throughout the ages, artists and more latterly illustrators have produced imagery with the sole intention of inciting disagreeable reaction in the audience.

Most of this material can be contextualised as either commentary by way of editorial publications or narrative fiction, imagery that corresponds with literature of an ‘alternative’ nature - extreme gothic horror might be an example.

This method of working and stylization has been associated with and embedded within the guise of avant-garde illustration. - page 107

It might be expedient to deliberate on what relationship aesthetic values manifests with ‘chocolate box’ and ‘shock’ illustration.

With ‘chocolate box’ it might be through ignorance;there are many, some illustrators included, who subscribe to the notion that ‘sickly sweet' is to be an aesthetic.

“Throughout the ages, artists and more latterly illustrators have produced imagery with the sole intention of inciting disagreeable reaction in the audience.”

Reading this book illustration by Alan Male was a research I chose to do since I wanted to explore and discover more about my own passion for illustration. What I have learnt and discovered after reading and doing my research is more than the visuals, but illustrations starts from concepts to further refining development and also finding the context of expression of the art work made. I learnt that my passion and style of my own illustration practices can have a sense of its own style that is somehow influential from my past and my developing ages. My history and past interests plays an important role in our own creative practices today, it has involved visual influences when we were growing up and this does seem to be relatable to me personally and is something I surprisingly agree with. Reading this book made me discover ideas and contexts that I never thought I would want to express.

Sketching and Drawing by Kojiro Kumagai notes 12/08/22

The study of croquis, which means a quick rough sketch, has its goal the ability to catch the shape of figures and objects with one’s eyes, to quickly render those shapes and to draw a living line. This study is a must for architects, stylists, decoratorm and fashion designers, not to mention artists and illustrators.

On sketching and drawing; page 6

Croquis, the art of quick sketch.

The more one draws, the harder the croquis becomes.

We are interested in the primary two croquis which are nude sketching and costume sketching. When sketching nudes,one looks at the nude model and draws the model as quickly as possible. (from 2 to 8 minutes)

In costume sketching, in addition to grasping the expression of the form as quickly as possible, one must also study the balance between the costume, body, and pose. In particular, one should express the feeling of the costume.

The importance of line; page 7

When we try to know a line, our eyes follow the line. In a word, a line is traced by our eyes. Not only do our eyes trace the line, but our spirit tries to reproduces the lin in our mind through the power of idea and image.

We draw lines with the power of our muscles. And lines are the means to record action.

The beauty of the s shaped line; page 8

Among all the possibilities of line, the graceful line in which the secret of harmony resides is the S shaped line.

To obtain beautiful form, avoid creating shapes with sharp, square, lines.

As for the secrets of the curve, Hogarth, Ingres, Toulouse-Lautrec, Harunobu knew them well. Every line of ukiyoe, especially the lines of th kimono, have the s shape.

Using Ballpoint pens;

Ball point pens do not give lines of varied darkness and width as pencils do, but they can create a simple touch and interesting style that pencils do not.

Using brushes;

There are soft and hard brushes. It is important to choose strong brushes. A brush expresses both powerful and delicate touches depending on how hard you press. However, it takes some time to gain full command of brush technique.

Using pencils;

Pencils, the most common of the artist’s drawing tools, are good for the beginner. You can achieve quite significant expression and effect with the skillful use of a pencil. Even those experienced in croquis technique favour pencils. Pencils range from 2B to 6B are suitable for croquis.

Doing quick sketches;

One does not not spend the time on sketches than one does on a drawing. When sketching a live model, one should capture the entire figure quickly., expressing the pose, body movement, and costume in five to ten minutes. From the beginning, try to show the movement and form of the model, rather than trying to draw beautifully. It is important for you to try to finish each line with one stroke rather than using repetitions one does when drawing.

Nude croquis;

Sketching nudes is indispensable to the study of fashion illustration. In order to finish a sketch within five to ten minutes, one must really look at the model before starting. One must grasp the movement, form and structure of the human body. They execute the sketch quickly. The simple form the nude body prevents the use of tricks or shortcuts that one might attempt with a costumed formed.

Visualising ideas from scribbles to storyboards notes 12/08/22;

You can use pictures from torn out catalogues and magazines or photos of yourself to build up a scrap file (morgue) of useful source material. Doodle as often as possible and wherever you are. A practical scrap files well organised , manageable, and provides the right source images in just a few minutes.

Montage technique; this means that elements from different source images are brought together and arranged into a single image.

Eyes are the mirrors of the soul, as the saying goes, we don’t want to go into that much depth here, but it does go to show how crucial the eyes are in helping us to understand and interpret different moods and emotions.

Graffiti Woman by Nicholas Ganz notes 12/08/22

Graffiti Woman celebrates the rise of female graffiti and street artist, showcasing the work of over 125 women, from those at the top of the game such as New York’s Lady Pink and Amsterdam’s Mickey to a galaxy of rising stars.

“My good friend Squid, bassist for the girl punk group The Lunachicks, grew tired of the question “what’s it like to be a girl musician in a male dominated field?” her response: The only difference between me and them is that I sit when I pee” - Dona

During the research for Graffiti Woman it became clear that, for the women involved, the scene is a cluster of contradictory experiences - some good, others bad. Being part of the movement isn't easy, and women have not enjoy their fair share of the limelight, but it has become a much more level playing field.

Women enter this subculture and appear to gain an automatic and tainte set of traditional feminine qualities.

Girls that persist, despite this hurdle, face further obstacles. Although women cannot be physically stopped from getting involved in graffiti, they can, through exclusion of their competitive force, be denied a place within an all-male subculture core.

Women have been part of this subculture since its inception -albeit at the fringes. But only now does graffiti appear to embracing their feminine touch.

Nancy Macdonald author of the graffiti subculture

“Most girls have different handwriting from guys. Girls use rounder letters. You see this already in primary school. With this background a lot of girl writers use round letters when they first try out, although obviously not all of them. Girls also tend to use round characters like butterflies hearts, big eyes - cute shit!” - Mickey

Across the water in New Zealand, Diva NZ has been active since 1998, and Mizery has been spray painting characters since the 1990s.

“Women have always been in the streets…graffiti is just another way of advertising your soul instead of your body. I believe women, convinced of the possibilities of doing what they love, are extremely powerful.” - Blue

Fafi;

Fafi belongs to a particular group of graffiti artists who use a brush to paint figures on the wall. She started back in 1994 and has concentrated on female figures - known as “fafinettes”. “Fafinettes’ are reminiscent of japanese manga comics with strong colours and sexy poses; they beautify dirty places, and fafi tries to be able to express her personality fully. ‘I find I Have two distinctives states of mind,’ she says, ‘most of the time, it's all very spontaneous and instinctive. I think most of us don't know why we do it - it's like a calling. We want to b e remembered. Then, sometimes if i s top a little bit, take a moment of reflection, I see a place in a different light - not just as a target for one of my characters, but like a big canvas, of which my character, is just one part…she stands there with traffic lights, trees and moving passers-by. Now that I want to create my own world where my “fafinettes'' will be among the characters.’

Lady Pink;

New Yorker, Lady Pink, who came to prominence in the 1980s through her involvement in the book subway art and the film wild style.

‘At the age of fifteen I started writing graffiti. At first it was to mourn the loss of my first love, so I wrote his name everywhere.’

‘My greatest contribution to our culture has been the ability to inspire people and to have had a positive impact on their lives. Many young women look up to me as a role model, and that is not a position I wanted, but I do my best to not let them down. I expect great things from our future generations, so don’t let me down!’

Miss Van;

French painter Miss Van, a female graffiti writer, was extremely rare. While many would have tried to hide femininity in their work in an effort to become accepted by their male counterparts, Miss Van did the exact opposite. She stayed true to herself, embraced her female sensibilities to the fullest, and used that to define a style that today - years later - is often imitated but never matched. Miss Van’s exquisite taste and her impeccable sense of style let you know that this work was done by a woman’s hand. With each piece, she deftly balances the playful and the alluring with precision and skill that allows her characters to be insightful, multidimensional and fully realised.

Each girl Miss Van paints is unique. Each one has a different story to tell. And like any great storyteller, Miss Van leaves it up to the viewer to fill in the history and backstory. It's up to you to determine how you want to interpret them. It is precisely this aspect of her work that makes Miss Van’s art so interesting. A man may see Miss Van’s girls as overtly alluring, sexual and erotic, while a woman, may see them, as playful, sexy, and sweet. It is this internal energy that Miss Van infuses into her characters which Marks a Miss Van piece and sets you in such a way that can completely transform the way you look at the city. Suddenly the city itself, like Miss Van’s characters, becomes sensual,sweet,alive, and full of mischief.

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