Graffiti writing in New York City is dangerous, but doing it as an adolescent girl in New York City is extremely dangerous. Graffiti artist Lady Pink knows the dangers of risking your life to write. “I couldn’t go out alone. The train yards are in a bad neighborhood, so basically it’s suicide for a young lady to go out alone,” she said. “I had to sneak out of my house, leave my mother crying all the time.” Lady Pink is one of five artists whose work is displayed as part of “Five From the Underground” at the Steven Vail Gallery in downtown Des Moines. The exhibit features the work of five graffiti artists who began painting illegally on subways and trains in New York City, and went on to be featured in major museums and collections around the world. Graffiti art, called “writing,” began in the early `70s and `80s said Karolyn Sherwood, director and partner of the Steven Vail Gallery. “They literally started out wearing black clothes, going out late at night and spray painting buildings, subways and trains illegally,” she said. “Their goal as a `tagger’ was to get their name in as many places as they could . The more places you could have your name, the greater the graffiti artist you were.” Dennis Raverty, assistant professor of art history, reviewed the exhibit for The Des Moines Register. He said the writers went from spraying trains with their “tag” (the elaborately lettered nicknames or initials of the writer), to showing off their work in the punk clubs of the East Village in New York. From there, the upscale galleries in SoHo turned to these emerging artists to fill their gallery spaces since abstract art had exhausted itself. “It was that very untrained, raw passion that really made the work interesting for people,” Raverty said. Lady Pink began doing graffiti writing in 1979 at the age of 15. She painted subway trains until 1985 and went on to have her work displayed at several prominent art collections including the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, among others. Now she does workshops with children and, along with her husband (who also was a graffiti artist), donates murals and large public works around New York City. When she was painting subways and trains, she had to dress like a boy and go out with a group of guys. “I had it rough. I was representing basically all the women, all my sisters in the sense that I had to remain always pretty strong and hold myself up with dignity and never panic and scream and cry like a girl like the way that they would expect,” she said. Lady Pink has two paintings in the exhibit, “Lady Heart” and “Blue Boy.” “Lady Heart” is a tribute to her high school best friend. “`Lady Heart’ is a portrait of one of the very few girls that I have respect for, that I’ve known and painted with,” Lady Pink said. “When she was painting trains and all, she was one of the very few women that I looked up to and respected for the nerve and the gall and just being calm, cool and collected in every way.” “Blue Boy” is set in a futuristic New York City in ruins and there is a blue child holding a spray can, fascinated with it. Lady Pink compared graffiti writing to a game of cops and robbers with a Dungeons and Dragons feel. “You’re there to paint the subway train or to slay the dragon, and sometimes it gets you,” she said. “It’s a game, but it’s a serious kind of game. Kids have lost their lives; kids have gone to jail and have never come out the same again. That’s what that painting represents.” “The young boy’s fascination with the spray can in the painting represents how civilizations learn about their predecessors,” Lady Pink said. “It’s the same way when we come across an ancient civilization, and we don’t understand a god damned thing except by the graffiti that we find on their walls,” she said. “I suppose that’s how they’re going to read our civilization when everything else is gone but a lump of stones.” Lady Pink doesn’t see graffiti coming to an end any time soon. “It’s been part of humanity since the dawn of humanity really, and there’s just no way that it’s going to die,” she said. “People are going to want to express themselves regardless of what society says.” Also part of the “Five From the Underground” exhibit are the works of Crash, Daze, Lee and Zephyr. Crash grew up in the South Bronx and picked up graffiti writing from older friends. “I always painted and drew as a kid. So in my mind I knew I was going to do something in art, whether it was fine art or anything like a commercial style,” he said. “It was just like I found something within it that I knew I could do.” Crash has two paintings on display in the exhibit, “The Horror of Erotica” and “Challenge From the East.” While working on a mural of New York’s old Times Square that was filled with peep shows, he ran across comic books from the ’50s and ’60s with sensationalistic titles. He merged the two and came up with the title, “The Horror of Erotica.” “It’s really weird because the painting was titled before the actual painting. The title was so funny you know I’m thinking, `Okay, how do I match the title?’ So I saw this woman with her eyes open like, `Oh, my gosh!’ and then all this really weird old fashioned style lettering,” he said. “Challenge From the East” comments on how things can be done over and over like the old style of graffiti lettering from 20 years ago and how the Japanese are fascinated by it, Crash said. “I started doing graffiti on subways in New York, and everything was about doing your name over and over and over and over,” he said. “That’s basically it, and then once I got a studio and started experimenting, you tend to like lean away from certain things and you start doing other things because that’s what artists do. You experiment and you’re constantly challenging yourself.” The subject matter of both artists’ paintings is continually changing. “The majority of my work doesn’t deal with graffiti at all,” Lady Pink said. “Perhaps, earlier on my stuff was the theme matter was maybe coming of age for a young lady, but as the years have gone by my theme matter has changed. I do political stuff, social stuff, theme matter of feminist paintings a lot. All sorts of different issues.” “I think what changes constantly is the ideas and the way you try and communicate the ideas,” Crash added. “That’s always evolving. I don’t think that will ever stay, and I hope it doesn’t because if it does, I might as well just pack it in.”