WOMEN REFINING THE ART OF THE STREETS
Few and Far is an assemblage of women who beautify the streets. In a shared commitment to creativity, education and social justice we draw, paint, skateboard and teach all over the globe.
Street art is an international, visual language that ever evolves. A mural is a story and each artist takes her turn in the telling. Using our gifts as totem makers, Few and Far’s reflection of the world is fantastic and distinctly feminine. By engaging our community in our narrative, we seek to foster young imagination, to help the neighborhood’s next generation recognize and channel their creative impulses. This conversation between artists and communities is an ongoing, global project to heal and bring together all peoples.
In June 2011, Meme organized a mural in industrial Oakland, CA with the unique intention of celebrating female graffiti and street artists. 17 women from varying places, politics and styles participated. The result was not only a visual feat but an outpouring of support and accolades. The neighborhood was suddenly electrified by the prospect of public art, specifically street art created by women. Sponsorships and video projects resulted organically. That first collaborative work was titled Few and Far, giving this group of talented, hardworking women it’s name.
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Even more importantly, the participants realized how much being a part of an all female team aided them in their ideas, their techniques and their sense of self. The level of fellowship, support and understanding was a surprising discovery; they had created, without realizing it, a matriarchal model for public artmaking. The group naturally magnetizes attention and with each project, their collaborative process evolves.
Alongside the large public murals, Few and Far organizes and participates in numerous all-female skateboarding events nationwide further committing to the empowerment of women and girls. In a male dominated subculture, these forms of expression are potent teaching tools for youth. Few and Far seeks to validate these emerging styles for the next generation.
Members herald from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, New York City, Miami, Seattle, New Jersey, Great Britain, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, France, Japan, Indonesia and Montreal among other places. A road trip with Few and Far members along the West Coast in 2012 produced civic sanctioned public works in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana. They have produced murals at Art Basel Miami for ten consecutive years and have brought art to communities in Bali, Thailand, the Philippines, the Bahamas, Israel, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, UK, Canada, Mexico, Nepal, India, Brazil, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
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Few and Far welcomes every opportunity to enliven another village, to reinvent another street corner, to partner with organizations in the common aim of social betterment. While all of these women pursue their individual expressions, they have all uniquely benefited from the experience of working together and are dedicated contributors to the global project of women in art.