Friday, October 31, 2008

Miss Van - The Original Graffiti Girl!

It would be impossible to approach the subject of “graffiti” without mentioning Miss Van, one of the “girls” who adorn the walls of the old Toulouse.

Now based in Barcelona, Miss Van earned her stripes on the streets of her native Toulouse – a city in Southwestern France that is home to a world-famous graffiti scene - where she set the standard for her peers and discovered an early affection for ruffling feathers.

An artist from a young age, Miss Van dedicated herself to art school and graffiti at the same time, and made no efforts to hide her love for street art from her professors. In the early 1990s, she began tagging and going around with friends. It was not long before she began to develop her trademark “sexy, erotic images that will disturb or seduce people on the street.” She likes to explore the symbiotic relationship between artist and public space, especially the fact that she can deposit images freely into a fully engaged environment and thereby encourage a heightened level of interplay between the viewer and her work.

You can see some of Miss Van's work - photo's taken of some her very best graffiti - at Graffitipix. In fact, you can order museum-quality, exhibition grade prints at absurdly low prices now.

While you're there, check out some of Graffitipix's other extraordinary images, including Fafi and some of her original Fafi girls and "Fafinettes" - photo's taken before her paintings starting appearing on lunch boxes!