Noteworthy graduates: Lady Pink, graffiti & fine artist

Sandra Fabara, known as the “first lady of graffiti,” was the only girl in the burgeoning subway-bombing graffiti subculture of 1980–85, when her teenage work, under the name Lady Pink, could be seen throughout the city. Simultaneously, she was exhibiting with street artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, meeting Andy Warhol and collaborating with fine artist Jenny Holzer, which helped her transition to creating art legally — now in collections nationally, internationally and at the Metropolitan, Whitney and Brooklyn museums in New York City. She credits her public school teachers with encouraging her talent and modeling the life of a working artist. “I had all kinds of wonderful teachers who influenced me. They would tell me there is a lot of promise in me, despite my acting out and getting in trouble. I never quite believed them, but they saw potential in me, and it takes a lifetime to realize what they’re telling you as a kid,” Fabara says. She is now returning that favor as a mentor herself, teaching public mural making in an after-school program at Frank Sinatra HS in Astoria.[[nid:67363; float: right;]]

I’m a first-generation immigrant. I came to this country from Ecuador as a 7-year-old in 1972 with my mom and sister. We started in Catholic school and encountere…