J*9: What got you involved in graffiti?
F.Lady: Other people’s scribbles in the streets of my old hometown caught my attention when I was about 16. It made me wonder who would do such a thing, how they did it and at what time of day? Their names were weird and the tags had style beyond normal handwriting. I just had to try it.
J*9: How long have you been producing graffiti?
F.Lady: My first illegal piece was in the beginning of 1998.
J*9: How would you describe your style?
F.Lady: Graphic lettering with candy colours. But recently I have started practising tattoo style characters which is more illustrative.
J*9: You are formally trained as Graphic Designer how does that affect your work?
F.Lady: My background has an influence on the colours and forms I choose for pieces and artwork. When designing screen prints having graphic design skills is really practical, even when the original is a drawing I can use the computer to try out some colours before we really start the printing process.
J*9: What graffiti artists have you collaborated with?
FLday: With a lot of nice people from all over Europe and beyond. But I like most to collaborate with my crewmates.
J*9: Tell me how Cat Fight Magazine started?
F.Lady: It started when I finished art school and wanted to get better at Indesign. And I needed to come up with a good project to do so. So I thought of this concept for a magazine. A magazine that had never been made before and I thought it was a good thing to have. There was no medium yet that highlighted female graff. The sites that were there had outdated info and pictures and only a few female writers were really internationally known. So I sent out a mail to every writer I knew and after a few months the first magazine was there.
J*9: What did you hope to achieve with the magazine?
F.Lady: First just to showcase what was out there so people could see. But after the first issue the magazine developed a bit further and issue after issue you could see the quality of the works improving. This was really important to me. Not only the network was getting bigger, more and more girls found Catfight and got inspired.
J*9: How do females use your website?
F.Lady: Mainly to download the mag. There is also a forum connected to Catfight and Graff Girlz where you can show your skills and discuss Graff related things.
J*9: Is it important to have resource like Cat Fight for female graffiti artists?
F.Lady: To answer that is quite hard. But if I wasn't making the magazine, I would definitely check it out to see what other female writers are doing. To get inspired by their styles, techniques but also to see the diversity of what is out there.
J*9: You are also a part of Bitches in Control, how did you two form?
F.Lady: At the time I was still in art school me and some friends had an art gallery for young artists. Lowlita and I were both working there and we hooked up. She was doing a lot of stickering in the streets back then, and I was both into graffiti and stickers and posters. As we were working there we started working on artworks together too. The gallery has been closed for some years now but we still work together.
J*9: What was it like being featured in Graffiti Woman?
F.Lady: Working together with the writer was crap, but the book turned out
quite ok. It is the only book of its kind so you kind of have to appreciate it, and I do think it has a certain value.
J*9: How does your gender affect your work?
F.Lady: It makes me want to use pink in everything I make.... ha ha no way! Gender and graffiti both influence my work. It makes me more versetile as an artist. Being able to make blunt typography is quite a manly quality, but I also make fine feminine illustrations and
typography.
J*9: Is the graff scene still as sexist as it once was?
F.Lady: In every male dominated scene there are macho men and nice men. I tend to hang out with nice guys and put the rest on ignore!
J*9: Are women starting to get some recognition now?
F.Lady: Yes, definitely. There are way more women in the scene nowadays and they get noticed for their skills.
J*9: Do you have any favourite artists in the scene at the moment?
F.Lady: LD crew from Amsterdam and Faith47 from South Africa.
J*9: Tell me about any interesting upcoming projects...
F.Lady: My newest crew the Fly Force is a badass all female hip-hop crew and we are planning to travel to every continent to show our skills. We’ve already been to South Africa this year and our next stop is hopefully Brasil. With the Bitches in Control we have an exhibition planned for May in Paris which is going to be loads of work, but I’m already looking forward to it.
Check out these link for more of F.Lady
www.catfightmagazine.com
www.bitchesincontrol.com
www.theflyforce.com
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