Epoxy Paint, High Gloss Azalea, mid-1970s: Formerly Owned by Lady Pink

Street art and graffiti hold cultural significance in the way they help artists express their individuality and critique political, cultural, social, and economic issues, as a subculture with a message. In the opinion of Lady Pink, queen of graffiti writers, Epoxy Azalea was “the most beautiful pink to be put out.”  Pink describes Epoxy paint as super strong and much better than Krylon, another popular brand among writers.  Thick, quality paint was favored by writers for its durability when faced with the “buff.” The Metro Transit Authority instituted the buff in 1978 to eliminate graffiti from its subway cars.  The cars were passed through a kind of car wash in which they were sprayed with gallons of chemical solvent to remove the graffiti.  This was a nightmare for writers—a graffiti masterpiece that had taken numerous hours of planning and painting and which had been done at great risk was destroyed in a matter of minutes.

Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara, b. 1964), is an Ecuadorian-American graffiti and mural artist. Her career focused on using graffiti and murals as acts of rebellion, empowering women and self-expression. Lady Pink’s name was chosen for her aesthetics because the name “Pink” is feminine and she wanted other artists to know that she was a girl. She started calling herself Lady Pink because of her love of historical romances, England, the Victorian period, and the aristocracy. Lady Pink was nicknamed the "first lady of graffiti," because she was one of the first active women in the early 1980s New York City subway graffiti subculture.