In part one of our two-part interview with Ecuador and New York-based graffiti artist TooFly we discussed the 5Pointz building law suit, centered around the white-washing of the graffiti-covered Queens building by the developer in 2013. TooFly credits 5Pointz as a place that enabled her to find her artistic footing and she had put up a piece on the building not long before it was whitewashed by the developer in the middle of the night on November 19, 2013. TooFly explained the developer likely violated the Visual Artists Rights Act, which has been used to protect public art.
Following our interview, a Brooklyn jury found the developer indeed broke the law when he whitewashed 5Pointz.
TooFly then discussed her background and how she became a street artist, a career that began by writing on school desks at the age of 15. In the video, she discussed the meaning of her name and also what inspired the the look of the female characters in her art.
She noted that while her art was embraced and celebrated by the men who dominated the scene at the time, she said she never felt entirely comfortable with the macho rule books of male crews and decided early on to stay independent and do things her own way.
Meeting graffiti artist Lady Pink was game changing for her because it introduced her to a community of women with a like-minded vision.
Check out the video below.
